Apple Supplier Foxconn Suspends Operations at Shenzhen Site Due to COVID-19 Lockdown

Apple’s leading supplier, Foxconn, has been forced to halt iPhone production at its Shenzhen, China sites as a city-wide lockdown has been implemented. The COVID-19 lockdown sees residences advised not to leave their homes as non-essential businesses are temporarily closed and public transit is suspended.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is Apple’s largest iPhone supplier. It’s not currently known which iPhone models will be affected by this freeze of manufacturing. Bloomberg reports that the city of roughly 17 million was put on lockdown as 60 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Sunday. This will likely add more pressure to the already disrupted global supply chains impacting Apple’s business.

“Due to our diversified production sites in China, we have adjusted the production line to minimize the potential impact,” a Foxconn representative said in a statement.

Shenzhen’s lockdown is said to last a week and will lift on March 20. Following that it is assumed that staff will be able to reenter the facilities and resume production. It’s still unclear how disrupted sales will be and how this temporary closure will affect Apple’s quarterly results. The company just recently announced its spring product lineup including the iPhone SE 3, iPad Air, Mac Studio, Studio Display, and new colour variations for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.

The city of Shenzhen is also home to other major tech companies including Huawei, Oppo and TCL, which are all likely affected by the lockdown as well. On top of supplying Apple, Foxconn also has tied to Google, and Amazon, and may see their businesses being impacted as well.