Covid-19 lockdown in China: iPhone supplier Foxconn halts operations in Shenzhen
PremiumAmid a rapid resurgence of Covid-19 cases, two of the country's biggest cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, have imposed strict virus measures
As Chinese authorities imposed a lockdown in Shenzhen to curb further spread of Covid-19, major Apple supplier Foxconn has suspended its operations in the tech hub, the company said Monday.
"Meanwhile, we have required all the employees to have Covid PCR test on top of existing prevention measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees," the company said.
It stated that the decision has been made to comply with the local government's new Covid-19 policy. News agency Reuters quoted company officials as saying that Foxconn and its subsidiaries' operations in Shenzhen would be suspended for the first half of the week.
The company has two major plants in Longhua Science Park and Guanlan Science Park in Shenzhen.
One of the people said the government was allowing companies to operate if they could create a "closed management" system where employees would live and work in a bubble. Such a system was in place during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Along with Foxcoxx, automakers Toyota and Volkswagen were also forced to shut some operations, raising concerns over supply chain disruptions.
Paul Weedman, who runs manufacturing consultancy Victure Industrial Co., Limited in Shenzhen, warned that the restrictions was having a ripple effect beyond Shenzhen to the wider Guangdong province. Production for some of his customers' orders have been suspended, and many factory visits cancelled, he said.
"Imagine you have a factory of 100 people and all of a sudden you can’t do anything - you can’t fulfil your existing orders, you can’t accept new orders. The impact is not 2 or 3 weeks, but 3-6 months."
Shenzhen's Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT), one of China's busiest ports, said in a WeChat statement it was operating normally, though two companies with warehouses at the port said they needed to temporarily suspend operations.
Other Taiwan companies which said they had suspended Shenzhen operations included chip substrate and printed circuit board maker Unimicron Technology Corp, which also supplies Apple and Intel, and flexible printed circuit board maker Sunflex Technology Co Ltd.
Sunflex said its plant would be closed until Sunday.
Covid situation in China
Amid a rapid resurgence of Covid-19 cases, two of the country's biggest cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, have imposed strict virus measures.
Other cities have enacted restrictions to varying extents. Officials have locked down Changchun city, the capital of northeastern Jilin province, shut schools in the financial hub of Shanghai and suspended public transport in the manufacturing centre of Dongguan.
The recent spike in coronavirus cases has led to allowing rapid antigen tests for public use and resulted in the dismissal of senior officials for their slack response to the ongoing health crisis.
The average number of new virus cases in the country has reached 1,370 per day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Chinese state media reported that Chinese observers warned local governments to avoid taking extreme measures such as city lockdowns, as they would harm the local economy.
China isolates all virus cases, including those in the community, as part of its Covid Zero policy. State media tabloid Global Times reported that China must strive to achieve a new breakthrough in its Covid policy.
With inputs from agencies.
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