After COVID-19 lockdowns, protests at Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory in China, and a stampede of workers, a report says Apple will produce six million fewer iPhone 14 Pro models than expected. With that, the manufacturer is planning to make up for this loss in 2023.
According to Bloomberg, the recent lockdowns in the Zhengzhou province, China, and protests at the largest iPhone factory will result in a production shortfall of close to 6 million iPhone 14 Pro units in 2022.
The information comes from “a person familiar with assembly operations,” who says the situation can improve depending on how quickly Foxconn can get people to the assembly lines.
Last week, BGR reported that over 20,000 new hires left Foxconn after they received a $,1400 bonus due to some problems with payments at the factory. The Zhengzhou complex has 200,000 workers responsible for producing most of the latest iPhones sold worldwide, but a strict COVID-19 lockdown followed by protests at the factory also interrupted Apple’s plans.
Early this month, the company gave a rare statement saying it would be harder to get an iPhone 14 Pro model this holiday season due to supply chain issues, but it got even more problematic.
Bloomberg reports:
(…) Apple lowered its overall production target to about 87 million units from an earlier projection of 90 million units, Bloomberg News reported.
Apple and Foxconn increased their estimates of the Zhengzhou shortfall over the past two weeks due to growing disruptions, said the person, adding that they expect to be able to make up the 6 million units in lost output in 2023.
Neither Apple nor Foxconn provided a comment regarding Bloomberg’s story. BGR will keep an eye on how the situation develops and whether Foxconn can resume iPhone 14 Pro models production at full capacity soon.
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