Asian Tech Press -- Torrential rainfall has hit the central China's Henan province from Tuesday, also besieged the world's biggest iPhone production base, Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory complex there.
After the floods poured into the city of Zhengzhou, the surrounding counties and cities also began to suffer. Zhongmou County was one of the first places to be reached after the floods crossed Zhengzhou City, and is also the location of one of the main factories of Foxconn's factory complex in Zhengzhou.
The Zhengzhou complex is Foxconn's largest site and also the world's biggest Apple iPhone production base, according to public information. It has more than 90 production lines and about 350,000 workers. And about half of the world's Apple iPhone isproduced here.
The Zhengzhou base includes three plants in total. As ATP learned, all three plants experienced several hours of power outages during the evening of July 20, with the Zhongmou plant hit the hardest by the flooding.
Several Foxconn workers who successfully escaped from the flood told the media that at its worst, about a thousand workers were trapped in dormitory buildings at the Zhongmou plant waiting for rescue.
At the same time, water and electricity were cut off in the plant, and the water could reach up to the neck when it was deepest. There was also a large amount of automated production equipments submerged in the flood water.
As of press time Friday, rescue operations are still underway, with no casualties yet. It is unclear if the flooding will affect Apple's iPhone production in the second half of the year.
Currently, Foxconn is entering the preparation period for new iPhone products. Typically, assembly of new iPhone models and their components begins in July, with production gradually increasing over the next few weeks.
It comes after news that Foxconn has just gotten orders for the 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max, 6.1-inch iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, and is now entering mass production.
At Foxconn's regular meeting of shareholders on Friday, Chairman Young Liu responded to whether heavy rainfall in Henan and chip shortage will affect Hon Hai's performance in the second half of the year.
Liu said, “Now it looks like the Zhengzhou flood has little impact on our performance this year. So, it is optimistic for the outlook of the second half of this year after removing this factor. The shortage of materials has some effect, but not much."
The online recruitment platform shows that as of July 20, Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory complex is still continuously recruiting workers.
