Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn has received a stamp of approval to restart work at a plant located in the northern Chinese city of Zhengzhou that had been shut out citing the coronavirus crisis, according to information provided by an insider with knowledge of the matter to Reuters on Monday.
The unnamed source said nearly 16,000 employees, which translates to just under 10 percent of the company’s workforce in Zhengzhou, have resumed work at the plant. Furthermore, the person that the company executives have left no stone unturned in an attempt to work out a deal with authorities to reinstitute production in other parts of China.
This turn of the event can be attributed to the coronavirus outbreak, which is touted as a global health emergency by WHO (World Health Organization). As a result, Chinese manufacturing has been critically affected, leaving policymakers no choice but to come up with preventive strategies to firm up the economy.
As far as Foxconn is concerned, the held up the resumption of work is likely to negatively impact shipments to consumers such as Apple, while having a major impact on the global technology supply chain, a source with access to the matter told Reuters. Foxconn is currently trying to restart production at Kunshan, Shenzhen and other key plants, according to an unnamed source who wasn’t permitted to speak publicly on this matter.
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In a statement, Foxconn pointed out that the safety of its employees is the priority. The company said it is currently working with the authorities to acquire permission to resume production in China “in a staggered and orderly manner.”
A large number of Foxconn employees have resumed work after a long Lunar New Year holiday. They have been advised to put on masks, follow a specific dining system and go through temperature checks, as per internal memos spotted by Reuters.
The source said senior Taiwanese officials who needed to return to China had to first get approval from Foxconn’s new Chairman Liu Young-Way. The popular device maker for global OEMs has set up production lines in the southern province of Guangdong to manufacture masks for its huge employee base, aiming to make a whopping two million masks daily after reaching full capacity towards the end of this month, the memos revealed.
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