Foxconn’s ‘iPhone city’ in China lifts production back to 90 per cent as chairman warns of challenging 2023
- Production at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou iPhone factory has resumed to about 90 per cent of peak capacity, a manager told Chinese state media
- In a New Year’s message, Foxconn chairman and CEO Young Liu said the Taipei-based company may see ‘a more difficult and challenging path’ ahead
In a front-page story on Monday, state media Henan Daily quoted Wang Xue, a deputy manager with the plant, as saying that production had reached about 90 per cent of maximum capacity as of December 30.
“We are updating our clients on a daily basis about production conditions,” Wang said, without naming Apple or any other specific customers. “Orders are good, and production will reach its peak in the coming months.”
In a New Year’s message, Foxconn chairman and CEO Young Liu said the Taipei-based company “encountered unprecedented challenges” in 2022 and may see “a more difficult and challenging path” in 2023, which will mark the 35th anniversary of Foxconn’s operations in mainland China.
“In the face of the sudden pandemic outbreak this winter, [Foxconn’s] mainland campuses, especially the Zhengzhou campus, were faced with the twofold tests of taking care of our employees’ health and safe production,” Liu wrote.
Taiwan-listed Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Technology Group, recorded 13.5 per cent revenue growth for the first 11 months of 2022, reaching 1.37 trillion yuan. However, November sales slid 11 per cent, according to the company’s financial report.
Foxconn’s mainland business is important not only to the company itself. Since 2010, the firm has accounted for 60 and 80 per cent of imports and exports in Henan province and its capital Zhengzhou, respectively, according to Henan Daily.
In the first three quarters of last year, nearly half of Henan’s total import and export values were mobile phones, the report said.
As China struggles to cope with surging infections and a shortage of medical supplies after a dramatic U-turn on its three-year zero-Covid policy, however, Apple is said to be accelerating plans to reduce its dependence on the country’s factories.
Foxconn also recently injected US$500 million into an Indian subsidiary through the purchase of 4 billion shares, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange last month.