COVID-19 lockdown in China: Foxconn suspends iPhone manufacturing in Shenzhen

Foxconn company told Reuters it has “adjusted the production line” to factories elsewhere in China to minimise the impact on operations (Representational Image)

iPhone supplier Foxconn has suspended manufacturing at its China headquarters and Shenzhen sites due to COVID-19 lockdown in the region, the company said on March 14.

Local authorities has imposed lockdown measures in the tech hub city amid rising COVID-19 cases which means all non-essential businesses in the region need to shut down till March 20. After the Shenzen city, the Jilin province has been put under lockdown in China.

Both the affected Foxconn sites — the company’s headquarters and a key manufacturing unit in Guanlan — produce iPhones.

The Taiwanese company told Reuters it has “adjusted the production line” to factories elsewhere in China to minimise the impact on operations.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Company or Foxconn as it is more commonly known by, did not specify the duration of shutdown.

China placed all 17 million residents in one of its biggest cities under lockdown on Sunday, as virus cases doubled nationwide to nearly 3,400 and anxiety mounted over the resilience of its 'zero-Covid' approach in the face of the worst outbreak in two years.

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The southern tech hub of Shenzhen told all residents to stay at home as the city struggles to eradicate an Omicron flare-up linked to neighbouring virus-ravaged Hong Kong.

The lockdown and a suspension of public transport will last until March 20, a city government notice said, adding that it would launch three rounds of mass testing. The move extends an earlier lockdown imposed on the city's central business district.

As cases rise in China, half of China's gross domestic product (GDP) and population could be impacted by the outbreak, according to economists at the ANZ Group.

If China's lockdown is extended, it will have impact on the GDP. ANZ is not revising Chinese GDP forecast but are wary of further lockdowns. Bloomberg Economics says that 14 provinces in China has high or medium risk to Covid. This is 54 percent of China's GDP.

Shenzhen reported 66 new infections on Sunday -- a fraction of the 32,430 confirmed the same day in Hong Kong.

"If prevention and control is not strengthened in a timely and decisive manner, it could easily become large-scale community transmission," Shenzhen health official Lin Hancheng said at a briefing.

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The surge in infections across China has also prompted authorities to close schools in Shanghai and lock down multiple northeastern cities, as 18 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.

China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, has maintained a strict 'zero-Covid' policy enforced with swift lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing when clusters have emerged.

[With agency inputs]