Reducing dependence on China and cheaper production in India and Vietnam. Apple factories resemble giant ghost towns – MobilMania.cz

Foxconn factories are responsible for the production of iPhones. Their production took place in China for a long time, and since Apple probably expected an increase in demand with each generation of iPhones, the production capacities had to adapt to it as well. Foxconn invested enormous amounts of money in factories, airports, and other infrastructure to create factories that resembled “cities within a city” in terms of size and number of employees. However, Apple has decided to reduce its dependence on China, so it is moving production to India and Vietnam. There are only ghost towns left in China, which only prove the extent of iPhone manufacturing in China. And this despite the fact that their sales in this country have fallen significantly recently.

The depopulated area of ​​the factory in Nanning, where Apple produced iPhones until recently

In the published report, you can see the premises of the Foxconn factory in Nanning, China. It was opened in 2011 and only a few years ago employed 50,000 employees, together with support services it created roughly 100,000 jobs. Today it’s just an empty box – a ghost town. Local catering businesses needed 60 tons of rice, 1.2 million eggs and 80 thousand chickens to feed (and not only) their employees every day, today only a few buildings are in operation and the site itself is dilapidated. Foxconn took machines to newly opened factories in Vietnam, leased some buildings, the rest lie idle.

Nothing lasts forever

The opening of the factory in 2011 turned the unknown city into a prominent export hub. Together with the factory, high-rise buildings, accommodation capacities and the necessary infrastructure began to be built. Today, building owners have a problem renting accommodation at a big discount (selling apartments is out of the question) because there is almost no one left in the city. China has long been the factory of the whole world, but the case of Foxconn shows that nothing lasts forever.

Apple is slowly withdrawing from China, also due to the ongoing economic war and export restrictions. Production is moving to India and Vietnam, where labor costs are halved. And this despite the fact that the beginnings were not rosy twice. Information reached the media last year that every second iPhone 14 chassis produced ended up in the trash, despite Apple tolerating a 0% error rate. In the background, however, you can see the effort to completely leave China, which would turn Foxconn’s factories into another ghost town.

The Foxconn factory has become a ghost town:

The upcoming iPhone 16 series will still be mostly manufactured in China, but compared to last year, a larger percentage of the devices should be made in Vietnam and India. For Apple, it remains the most important factory in Zhengzhou, with 300,000 employees, which produces 350 iPhones every minute.

Source: Apple Insider, China Observer