Refuting previous reports that said Apple may have cut iPhone production orders, key iPhone assembler Foxconn has claimed that December 2022 iPhone orders were not trimmed down, the media has reported. Recent reports suggested that the tech giant has asked its contract suppliers to cut down production of iPhones, MacBooks and AirPods in the wake of weak demand.
The reports of Apple cutting back on iPhone production orders contributed to Apple’s market value slipping below $2 trillion.
The growth in December compared to the month prior for its consumer electronics business, including smartphones, showed major client Apple did not cut orders, says a report by news agency Reuters, citing a Foxconn source familiar with the matter, who could not be named.
This comes at a time when the California-based tech giant is expected to enlist a Chinese manufacturer to assemble its premium iPhone Pro models, breaking its biggest supplier Foxconn’s hold on production after the Taiwanese company was hit by worker protests over Covid-19 restrictions at its largest Chinese factory, said a report by Financial Times.
Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles a majority of iPhones for Apple eased most of its anti-Covid curbs at its factory in Zhengzhou, China last month, news agency Bloomberg had reported. According to the report, this move is considered to be a significant step forward for the facility that had become a flashpoint in China’s efforts to contain infections.
To recall, earlier in November, videos surfaced on Chinese social media sites that showed several Chinese migrant workers scaling a fence outside a Foxconn plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones, due to poor conditions at the plant. The videos showed workers fleeing China’s largest iPhone plant in COVID-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus. The unrest also lead to thousands of workers to quit.