Foxconn’s factory has now returned to about 70 percent capacity, and the wait time for higher-end iPhone Pro models is shortening, according to foreign media citing analysts and supply chain sources.
Models like the iPhone 14 Pro Max start at around $1,100, an integral part of Apple’s strategy to increase revenue amid slowing growth in the global smartphone market as a whole. That strategy took a hit in October, however, when an epidemic had a huge impact on the main iPhone Pro manufacturing site operated by Foxconn.
Nonetheless, analysts and supply chain sources say the situation is gradually returning to normal. “Supply is improving and is slowly moving toward parity with demand,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in an iPhone 14 Pro analysis to investors this week.
J.P. Morgan found that wait times for U.S. consumers to order the latest iPhone Pro have shortened, from a previous wait of up to 40 days. In the U.S. and China, Apple’s website shows wait times of about one to two weeks for Pro models. In many Apple Stores in both countries, certain Pro models and colors are available immediately.
The iPhone production unit at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant is already recovering and is currently at about 70 percent capacity, according to analysts and people familiar with the supply chain. Meanwhile, Foxconn is still working to restore the rest of its capacity.
Market research firm TrendForce said the labor shortage is affecting the supply chain in China. The company expects total iPhone shipments to be about 47 million units in the first quarter of next year, down 22 percent from a year earlier and below the 56 million units it had expected to release in late October. Those figures include all iPhone models.
Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou sometimes called “iPhone City,” employs as many as 300,000 people at the peak of production of iPhones and other Apple products. At one point, Zhengzhou was responsible for 85 percent of the iPhone Pro lineup, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research.
Foxconn has shifted some iPhone production to other factories in Shenzhen. Despite short-term production ups and downs, supply chain sources said Apple is looking at medium- to long-term goals to diversify its supply chain and expand to more locations outside of China, such as India and Vietnam.
Foxconn has always assembled iPhones in India and has recently stepped up technical support to produce certain new iPhone models at the same time as its Chinese factories.
