Bad news from China for Apple and for all those users who await the arrival of the future iPhone 14. And it is not the first time, actually. As we already told you in the middle of March, Apple’s production in China had to face temporary closures of companies as a security measure against the coronavirus, although due to the leaks that supposedly come from the supply chain, the company would have finally managed to avoid these risks.
However, according to the South China Morning Post, it seems that the pandemic complicates production operations again. And it is that the production of the iPhone 14 could be compromised by the perimeter closure and confinement of Zhengzhou, a Chinese city of 12 million inhabitants, which stands out for having a Foxconn factory, responsible for the production of a large part of the iPhone that they come to market.
At the moment, the closure of the city will be for a week, but in other recent closures that we have seen in the Asian giant, the successive extensions of this security measure have led to periods of one month or more, time during which part of the non-essential professional activities are suspended, in addition to limiting everything that can enter and leave the affected area. Something that, as you have surely already thought, can have a very profound impact on the supply chain necessary for the assembly of future iPhone 14s.
Thus, now the key for Apple and for Foxconn is that the authorities’ response to the growth in reported cases of coronavirus prove effective, and that in this way Zhengzhou can return to normality as soon as possible. Otherwise, if this situation continues over time, it is possible that Apple will be forced again, as it already happened in 2020, to delay both the presentation and the market launch of the iPhone model of the yearon that occasion the iPhone 12.
Just yesterday, before the confinement of Zhengzhou was announced, Foxconn had started a hiring process to add new workers in order to increase the production volume of that factory, perhaps to advance work due to the risk that something like this would end happening. However, it seems that they have not arrived in time to put the patch before the wound and, consequently, surely today, in Cupertino, they will be closely monitoring the epidemiological situation in Zhengzhoufor the account that brings them.
