Foxconn is about to ramp up production in ‘iPhone City’
The world’s largest iPhone factory in China is once again offering big bonuses as it strives to massively ramp up Apple smartphone production there in time for fall.
Ramping up for the next iPhone?
Local Chinese media reports say Foxconn is offering 8,000 yuan to former workers who return to the assembly line. Foxconn’s chairman is also working to reassure China’s government that the nation will remain a key base for Apple product manufacture in future.
Foxconn is also offering 1,000 yuan to staff who recommend a new worker who is subsequently employed, and a 7,000 yuan bonus to employees who stick around for at least four months. As a guide, 1,000 yuan is around $185.
This is the factory where production famously slowed due to the double whammy of Covid and staff disruption last year. Those disputes impacted Apple’s iPhone production schedule and caused the company to share a rare quarterly results warning. As Apple moves to widen its supply chain, old partner Foxconn will be eager for things to run more smoothly this year.
India is accelerating also
To guard against supply chain shock, Apple is building out iPhone manufacturing in India while other products are now also made in Thailand and Vietnam. The moves also reflect increasingly poor relations between China and the US. Eager to reassure the Chinese government, Foxconn chair Liu Young told the WEF that his company plans to move its supply chain out of China.
Young’s company continues to expand in India. It recently confirmed plans to open more production lines at its factory in Chennai. India is expected to make c.18% of iPhones by 2025.
Trouble at Lordstown
Interestingly, in related news Foxconn’s vast vehicle factory in Ohio is seeing a deal descend into the courts, as US EV maker Lordstown Motors is suing Foxconn. The smaller company claims the Taiwanese firm has reneged on a $170m deal, as a result of which it has entered bankruptcy. Given Foxconn has shared its interest in electric vehicles and Apple’s continued work on Apple Car, that case could be the harbinger of something or of nothing.
And in the background, Apple’s iPhone continues to grow market share in China and India.
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