Exclusive | Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory confirms Covid-19 impact after central China campus restricted worker movement

Foxconn said a ‘small number of employees’ on the Zhengzhou campus have been affected and that production remains ‘relatively stable’
The news comes after Apple’s largest supplier restricted workers to eating in their dorms last week amid China’s continued zero-Covid approach

Foxconn

Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Published: 2:16pm, 26 Oct 2022

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Foxconn Technology Group has confirmed that the world’s largest iPhone factory, in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, is dealing with a small Covid-19 outbreak but said production remains “relatively stable”.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that “[a] small number of employees” on the campus have been affected by Covid-19, after the South China Morning Post reported earlier that the factory had gone to the extreme of banning dining in cafeterias and requiring employees to follow fixed routes in commuting between dormitories and the workplace.

“For the small number of employees affected by the pandemic, Foxconn, in compliance with local epidemic prevention policies, is providing the necessary guarantees for livelihoods, including material supplies, psychological comfort and responsive feedback,” the company said in its statement.

“Operations and production in the Zhengzhou park are relatively stable with health and safety measures for employees being maintained,” Foxconn added. “At present, the epidemic prevention work in Zhengzhou is progressing steadily, and the impact on the group is controllable.”

Foxconn imposes restrictions on iPhone assembly plant as Covid-19 flares

The response from Apple’s largest supplier came after widespread discussions on Chinese social media platforms including Weibo and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, about the Covid situation on the Zhengzhou campus, which has been sealed off to maintain operations in a “production bubble” with tightened restrictions.

Videos and texts complaining about a strict lockdown at the Zhengzhou compound were also shared widely on Chinese social media, including the Instagram-style Xiaohongshu and Weibo. On Weibo’s Foxconn topic page, many users asked for help and more attention on the outbreak. Some users said there were new positive cases from the factory’s nucleic acid tests every day, but many people were not receiving food and medication.

A Foxconn employee, who declined to be named, said that the factory was not doing enough to separate the positive cases in a timely manner. “I just want to work. I don’t want to be infected because there will be trouble for me to find a new job in the future,” the person said in a message on Douyin when reached by the Post.

The conversation was cut short when the person said she received a notice from her manager that she had received a positive Covid test result. She declined to answer further questions after getting the news.

The outbreak on the Foxconn campus, which has nearly 300,000 workers, comes as Zhengzhou tries to stave off a broader outbreak amid China’s continuing strict zero-Covid policy. The city of 10 million reported 23 new local cases on Wednesday, including three symptomatic cases, and put many areas under lockdown.

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The Foxconn factory’s Covid-19 policy, last updated on October 11, requires everyone to present test results or proof of testing within the previous 24 hours, according to the facility’s official recruitment channel on WeChat. Workers are reminded to wear masks, keep a safe distance from each other, and to not lend mobile phones or health codes to others.

Foxconn workers should keep their phones turned on and “pay attention to calls from unfamiliar numbers”, the notice said.

Last week, the campus banned all eating in dining halls and asked workers to take their meals back to their dormitories. The factory will provide workers with three free meals per day, the company said. Some departments – including the integrated Digital Product Business Group, which is responsible for iPhone assembly – have been offered transport subsidies to get back to the dorms.

The struggles for the Foxconn campus reflect the challenge for the Chinese government as it seeks to meet economic development targets while maintaining zero tolerance for any Covid outbreaks. The country’s strict pandemic control measures, including lockdowns in Shanghai and Shenzhen earlier this year, have undermined investor confidence in the world’s second largest economy as a stable manufacturing base and accelerated the relocation of facilities to other markets.

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