Foxconn Aims to Reopen Half of Assembly Plants in China by End of February

[MacRumors]

Reuters reports that Apple's main iPhone assembler Foxconn aims to reopen half of its manufacturing facilities in China by the end of February. The move would allow production lines to be phased back into action following the extensive lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Taiwan's Foxconn hopes to resume half of its production in China by month-end, a source told Reuters on Wednesday, as the supplier to tech giant Apple and others reopens plants shut over a coronavirus outbreak.

The world's largest contract electronics maker also aims to resume 80 percent of production in China in March, added the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, citing internal targets set by Chairman Liu Young-Way.

Foxconn was originally planning to reopen its factories on February 10 to begin production on Apple devices after the Lunar New Year holiday, but the company's plans were put on hold due to the ongoing viral outbreak while facility inspections were performed. Local governments are concerned the virus will spread quickly in a labor-intensive working environment.

Foxconn this week got the go-ahead to reopen some major plants in China, and its plant in the eastern city of Kunshan was also approved on Tuesday to resume production. However, only around one tenth of the workforce had returned to two key plants in southern Shenzhen and central Zhengzhou as of Monday, a source told Reuters.

Apple has also extended the shutdown of its own retail stores in China. Stores were supposed to open on Monday, but Apple has decided to wait until February 15.

Apple typically sources components from multiple suppliers, mainly to diversify local production risks, and Apple is mulling shifting more assembly orders for its new models slated for launch in the first half of 2020 to factories in Taiwan, according to DigiTimes.

Article Link: Foxconn Aims to Reopen Half of Assembly Plants in China by End of February

 

[EugW]

End of Feb? Wow, that’s quite the delay.

I wonder what that means for all the products that might have had planned announcements at a hypothetical March event. iPad Pro? iPhone 9 / SE2?

 

[Abazigal]

I guess life is cheap.

Xi warned officials that efforts to stop virus could hurt economy: sources

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the new coronavirus had gone too far, threatening the country's economy, sources told Reuters, days before Beijing rolled out measures to soften the blow.

www.reuters.com

 

[Maestroso]

It’s really sad to witness so many people assuming their priorities in getting their next Apple product rather than caring about Foxconn’s (and Apple’s) irresponsible actions.
Human lives are at stake here. Opening those factories will endanger them. Nevertheless, most people write and talk about the effects on economy and their newest shiny gadgets - all from ‘save’ distance; all without empathy; all without realizing they could be next.

 

[5105973]

I guess life is cheap.

Xi warned officials that efforts to stop virus could hurt economy: sources

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the new coronavirus had gone too far, threatening the country's economy, sources told Reuters, days before Beijing rolled out measures to soften the blow.

www.reuters.com

From what I’ve observed of corona virus in general in the cat population (I do rescue work) such viruses mutate and kill when there are pre existing medical conditions. Otherwise they just cause a bad cold.

From what I have read about this one, it just causes a bad cold in healthy people. In people like me, middle aged with pre existing conditions, it does something awful. I haven’t yet come across an article that spills the details of exactly how it’s killing except to say acute respiratory failure. I’ve seen some articles on some ugly nodule type damage in lungs.

So basically the disease does what a lot of these politicians and top 1% want, it culls the worn out middle aged and elderly, or the sick of any age, and leaves young healthy people to carry on. So yeah, any regime that doesn’t want people old enough who remember what real freedom and the struggle for it really was like is going to put economics above virus management.

 

[EugW]

That didn’t take long.

It’s amazing how many people try to convince themselves of their moral superiority with posts like these... on a gadget rumour site.

It’s really sad to witness so many people assuming their priorities in getting their next Apple product rather than caring about Foxconn’s (and Apple’s) irresponsible actions.
Human lives are at stake here. Opening those factories will endanger them. Nevertheless, most people write and talk about the effects on economy and their newest shiny gadgets - all from ‘save’ distance; all without empathy; all without realizing they could be next.

 

[Abazigal]

That didn’t take long.

It’s amazing how many people try to convince themselves of their moral superiority with posts like these... on a gadget rumour site.

What else were you expecting?

It certainly looks like the situation in China is far from being under control.

China’s been in a rough patch. I believe they narrowly escaped a recession in 2018 (partly thanks to the government’s stimulus efforts), then came the trade war, and now this. Maybe the situation will recover by then, but by at this time, it certainly looks like China is prioritising money over lives here.

Apple is a big company. While we talk about quarterly profits, I don’t think anyone is going to hold it against Apple for missing a month or two of sales due to regional issues. If anything, this would be the opportune time to see just how elastic Apple’s supply chain is and what contingency plans they have in place in the event of such a disruption.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

Hopes to
Aims to

neither of these mean they actually will reopen.

Trying to keep Wall Street calm with words isn't a disregard for life that all these other posts seem to think.

 

[SBlue1]

It’s really sad to witness so many people assuming their priorities in getting their next Apple product rather than caring about Foxconn’s (and Apple’s) irresponsible actions.
Human lives are at stake here. Opening those factories will endanger them. Nevertheless, most people write and talk about the effects on economy and their newest shiny gadgets - all from ‘save’ distance; all without empathy; all without realizing they could be next.

You know the pressure is coming from the Chinese government which wants to prevent an economical crisis at all cost? It’s not Apple who is pushing Foxconn.

 

[cocky jeremy]

I guess life is cheap.

Xi warned officials that efforts to stop virus could hurt economy: sources

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the new coronavirus had gone too far, threatening the country's economy, sources told Reuters, days before Beijing rolled out measures to soften the blow.

www.reuters.com

When you have a billion people.. yeah. They need to control the population over there somehow.

 

[konqerror]

I guess life is cheap.

Xi warned officials that efforts to stop virus could hurt economy: sources

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the new coronavirus had gone too far, threatening the country's economy, sources told Reuters, days before Beijing rolled out measures to soften the blow.

www.reuters.com

If the economy collapses, people will die too. Just look at Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

 

[HDFan]

It’s really sad to witness so many people assuming their priorities in getting their next Apple product rather than caring about Foxconn’s (and Apple’s) irresponsible actions.
Human lives are at stake here. Opening those factories will endanger them.

Factories closed also means (I assume) no income for the employees. Some companies could go out of business, meaning job losses. In a country where so many are near the subsistence line the loss of income is significant thing, especially when food prices are skyrocketing. In America ~30% of income goes for a mortgage, only 11-15% for food. In China ~30% goes for food. Loss of income becomes a serious problem. As in most things it is a trade-off.

Food prices are soaring in China because of the coronavirus and swine fever

The coronavirus outbreak is driving up the cost of food — and almost everything else in China — adding to the pressure on household budgets.

www.cnn.com

 

[incoherent_1]

If the economy collapses, people will die too. Just look at Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

You beat me to it. I came here to post this.

It’s awfully easy to be an armchair world leader when the lives and wellbeing of millions isn’t at stake. If people can’t afford food or rent or — yes even medical care — because the factories have been closed too long, then there’s a cost in human life there too. Decisions can’t be made in a vacuum.

 

[dampfnudel]

End of February may be optimistic. Airlines have decided to suspend flights to China until the end of April. Experts expect this to get much worse over the next few weeks. 242 new deaths and 15,000 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours in Hubei province.

 

[incoherent_1]

End of February may be optimistic. Airlines have decided to suspend flights to China until the end of April. Experts expect this to get much worse over the next few weeks. 242 new deaths and 15,000 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours in Hubei province.

I think April was the airlines erring on the side of caution. Better to cancel a flight 2 months away than 2 weeks away — far fewer angry customers.

Also, the increase in new cases and deaths reported today is mostly attributed to a more inclusive methodology of what defines a Coronavirus case, rather than an actual increase in the real number of people who are sick/have died.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I guess life is cheap.

It’ll be a good test of how disastrously mindless our business environment is, if market pressure demands China reopen its factories early, causing a dispersion of a virus largely contained there into a global pandemic, infecting those countries pushing the demand. If you wrote that as a plot to a book it would be way too obvious and poetic to be believable.