Apple major suppliers in China, including iPhone-maker Foxconn, plan to resume full-scale production in the country on February 10 despite the novel coronavirus outbreak, reads a new report from Bloomberg.
Apple suppliers in China such as Quanta Computer, Inventec, and LG Display also intend to resume work in China from next week.
“While Chinese officials and companies have targeted Feb. 10 as the date to resume work in much of the country, doubts about the timing have grown in recent days as the virus death toll rises, workers, find themselves stuck in municipal lockdowns and the transport of people and goods has been hampered,” reads the report. “More than 20,000 people have been infected with the virus and more than 400 have died.”
During an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the re-opening of its factories outside Wuhan had been pushed back to early February, though no specific suppliers had commented or confirmed their schedules at that time.
“The main variable is whether the government will push back the time for resuming production, though it is not very likely given the complexities of organizing transportation for the returning migrant workers,” GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu said.
A more recent report from DigiTimes, on the other hand, claims that Foxconn may not begin operations at its Wuhan plant until after February 13:
Foxconn Technology Group’s (Hon Hai Precision Industry) plant in Wuhan, China will not begin operation until after February 13, but the suspension of the production there will not create a major problem to the company, since the facility will be able to catch up with the shipment delivery schedule in a very short time, the sources said. Foxconn is also monitoring all its plants’ statuses in China via an internal command center, they said.
On Saturday, February 1, Apple announced that it was closing its entire China operation until February 9 as a precaution to the spreading coronavirus.
The coronavirus outbreak was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization, and threatens to upend the global supply chain, already in turmoil after the US vs. China trade war. The virus has infected more than 20,000 people, 400 of whom have died.
