There zero Covid strategy launched by China for some time now, it continues to cause headaches to the large companies that manufacture their products there. The latest case in a long, very long series concerns the city of Chengdu (16 million inhabitants) which is grappling with the lockdown to block the chain of infections. It’s one of the locations where Apple’s suppliers make iPads and MacBooks, and it’s yet another stop that risks affecting the Apple’s ability to assemble and sell products.
It is no coincidence that there are many indications of a disengagement from China decided by the men of Cupertino, and the current situation in Chengdu does not – we are sure – that strengthen the conviction of the top management that it is necessary to diversify the countries in which the production sites are located (in Vietnam the tests for the production of MacBook and Watch would already have started). Moreover, according to what Nikkei Asia reports, the lockdown to curb the advance of the virus comes at a time when factories and suppliers were resuming activities after the power outages caused by the drought that hit the south-west of the country.
It is not even known when the lockdown will end: it should have ended on Wednesday, yesterday, but now there is no exact date anymore, “we will look at the development of infections and we will decide accordingly”, step by step. Thus Foxconn and Jabil, according to Nikkei Asia, would have adapted to the unpredictability of the situation by asking employees to live on the campuses adjacent to the factories, in order to create a sort of bubble that would allow operations not to be interrupted.
“The new anti Covid measures could stop production again. It is a period full of unforeseen events, and we hope that the lockdown can end soon”a source told the Asian news outlet. Another echoes him, according to which, however “the impact [del lockdown] it should be much lower than the power outages due to drought “.
In Guiyang, a city of 5 million inhabitants in the province of Guizhou in southwestern China, things are no better. There stands the Guizhou Cloud Big Data, a data center where data from Chinese customers using iCloud flows. Bloomberg reports that those who manage the complex can spend even more than a week isolated, away from their loved ones, due to Covid, the lockdown, and the fact that operations cannot be stopped, so you isolate yourself by living in the same place where you work.
Indeed, Guizhou Cloud Big Data, like the Foxconn and Jabil factories, is a “closed circuit” system: eating, sleeping and producing, gritting his teeth until the lockdown is lifted. “Faced with a terrible situation, we need courageous people on the front line“wrote the Guizhou Cloud Big Data in a WeChat post.
Credits opening image: keitma.
