China Locks Down Area Around ‘iPhone City’ in Blow to Apple

China has ordered a seven-day lockdown of the area around Foxconn Technology Group’s main plant in Zhengzhou, a move that will severely curtail shipments in and out of the world’s largest iPhone factory.

The lockdown will last until Nov. 9, the local government said in a statement posted to its WeChat account. It ordered people and vehicles off the streets except for medical or other essential reasons, a prohibition that threatens to cut off the flow of additional workers and components needed to rev up production ahead of the holiday-season crush.

The abrupt action reflects Beijing’s Covid Zero approach and is likely to further disrupt Foxconn’s main operations base, which cranks out an estimated four out of five of Apple Inc.’s latest handsets. The Taiwanese company, whose main listed arm is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., was already grappling with a Covid flare-up that forced some of its 200,000 staff into quarantine and pushed others to flee the facility — some on foot.

The government notice emerged after Zhengzhou reported Covid-19 cases jumped to 359 for Tuesday, up more than three-fold from a day before. Officials there have in recent days progressively imposed a web of smaller lockdowns and restrictions on areas as small as an apartment block.

The plant will keep operating within a “closed loop,” or a self-contained bubble that limits contact with the outside world, Foxconn said in a statement. But the company didn’t address questions about how it will ship goods in and out of the compound during the area-lockdown. An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment… READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… – Bloomberg