Corona outbreak
No more iPhones from Shenzhen for the time being: Corona wave threatens availability of technology
Without the people in the Chinese Foxconn plants, the technology world stands still.
© Kin Cheung / Picture Alliance
Dozens of companies in the economic metropolis of Shenzhen are shutting down production. An outbreak of the Omicron variant forces the industry into a hard lockdown.
The authorities in the Chinese economic metropolis of Shenzhen are sending the city of over a million people into lockdown. Due to a renewed outbreak of Covid-19, the production lines in numerous factories are standing still. The Apple supplier Hon Hai Precision, better known in the western world under the name Foxconn, is also affected. In Shenzhen, the group manufactures Apple’s iPhone, according to reports, the iPhone 13 is particularly affected.
At the weekend, 3,400 cases were reported in 19 regions, and 75 people tested positive in Shenzhen. Too much for the country’s strict zero-Covid strategy. The imposed lockdown affects several cities with a population of over a million – mass tests, the closure of public transport and curfews are now to follow. In Shenzhen, too, people are forbidden to leave the city.
The economic metropolis is home to over 17 million people, it is the most extensive lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic. The measures should initially apply until March 20th.
Production relocated, iPhone SE apparently not affected
Foxconn has already responded to the stopped tapes and relocated iPhone production to other locations. For Apple, the lockdown is definitely a nuisance: just last week, the company presented the new iPhone SE, which is scheduled to go on sale this week.
So far, however, the delivery times have not skyrocketed, Apple currently states that it can deliver every iPhone SE model on time on March 18th.
It remains to be seen what impact the Shenzhen lockdown will have on the global market. Of course, not only Foxconn is affected, but more than 30 other IT factories that produce touch screens, semiconductors and other important components that the world market urgently needs.
Omicron poses major problems for China
It can be assumed that China is currently struggling primarily with the omicron variant. This is a bigger problem for China than in this country. The reason: The Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac are classic dead vaccines that offer little protection against infection and protect less well against a fatal course than mRNA vaccines.
Experts had warned of the outbreak months ago. The virologist Alexander Kekulé explained in the MDR Corona podcast before the start of the Olympic Games and the Chinese New Year celebrations: “It is the case that no one among the experts here does not see the catastrophe coming. Everyone says that there is no reasonable one Way out and we’re scared. It’s not just about the people in China, but also about the global economic ties. And that affects us all.”
swell: daily News, Financial Times, daily News [2]