In an unusually upfront admission, Apple said on Sunday that customers planning to purchase an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max face longer wait times for his or her order as a result of COVID-19 restrictions impacting one in every of its key assembly facilities in China.
In a message on its website, Apple said that COVID curbs at its primary Foxconn-run iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China, have led to “significantly reduced capability.”
In consequence, it now expects “lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their recent products.”
It added: “We’re working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of each employee.”
China’s famously strict zero-COVID policy is constant to affect businesses and livelihoods across the country, with tech firms’ supply chains experiencing disruption every time a COVID-19 outbreak occurs inside or near a producing plant.
Apple’s admission follows what has reportedly been a chaotic period on the factory, situated about 380 miles southwest of Beijing, after a employee tested positive for COVID-19 last month. As Foxconn attempted to impose a lockdown on the factory, reports began to emerge of dwindling food supplies and a scarcity of adequate medical help, prompting a few of the site’s 300,000 or so staff to flee the sprawling campus, which incorporates worker dormitories and other facilities for every day life.
In a marked shift away from counting on China as its predominant manufacturing hub, Apple recently began producing its latest iPhone at a recent facility in India, also run by Foxconn.
Apple has been assembling older smartphones in India since 2017, however the recent change sees the country now home to a facility producing the tech giant’s very latest handsets. Analysts imagine India will turn out to be a worldwide iPhone manufacturing hub by 2025.
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