Foxconn today revealed that a few COVID-related restrictions have been eased at the Zhengzhou factory, also known as
“iPhone City”. The news was broken on Foxconn’s WeChat account, confirming that the “point-to-point” restriction has been lifted. This anti-COVID measure only allowed employees at the Zhengzhou factory to only move between their dormitories and the campus. This restriction has been lifted as the area surrounding Foxconn’s facility is no longer considered to be a high-risk one in terms of COVID-19 spread.
China is currently combatting a wave of COVID-19, which is the result of the country’s abrupt cancellation of its zero-COVID policy, which is currently expected to cause up to a million deaths. The restrictions led to unrest and mass leaving at the Zhengzhou facility and caused severe production delays for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Both models are only produced at this plant.
Previous reports outlined that the facility is some 100,000 employees short-handed to resume full capacity. Normally, the Zhengzhou factory has around 300,00 employees, which are responsible for the assembly of nearly half of the world’s iPhone supply.
Ever since their arrival, both the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max have suffered production delays that disrupted the supply chain and caused multiple order delays. Things only got worse after the COVID lockdown that disturbed the normal state of affairs at Zhengzhou.
Currently, attempting to buy an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max straight from Apple reveals that you will have to wait a week or two, which is significantly better than the much longer wait times last month.
Apple is has diversified its manufacturing options, with the current majority of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models intended for India mostly assembled in Foxconn’s local facilities. Foxconn is also reportedly considering a quadruple increase in workforce in India, which will allow it to build more units for export to other regions.
