“The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity,” Apple said in a statement.
“Customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.”
However, an insider has now claimed the impacts will be far more severe than initially thought – a development which could be catastrophic as the Christmas shopping period fast approaches.
Speaking to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity, the source claimed Apple would likely be short six million iPhone Pros this year alone – although that figure could change and could skyrocket even more drastically, depending on when the situation is finally resolved.
It will be a massive blow for Apple, given the Zhengzhou facility produces most of the company’s iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max devices, which emerged as Apple’s biggest products in 2022.
“This is a dark sign of the zero-Covid policy in China impacting production for Apple with Foxconn,” Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, told AFP earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Ives told CNN Business the shutdown was causing Apple to haemorrhage cash.
“Every week of this shutdown and unrest we estimate is costing Apple roughly US$1 billion [NZ$1.6b] a week in lost iPhone sales,” he said.
“Now roughly 5 per cent of iPhone 14 sales are likely off the table due to these brutal shutdowns in China.”
Apple’s shares have fallen dramatically as a result of the production fears, dropping by 2.63 per cent or US$3.89 to US$144.22.
Apple’s woes come as China grapples with unprecedented protests which many have described as the most significant since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
In a nation where public dissent is rare and swiftly curtailed, protests have broken out across the country as a result of growing frustration with its zero-Covid strategy, with citizens erupting after a fire at a high-rise residential block on Friday left 10 dead and injured nine others.
Angry residents demanded to know if firefighters were delayed from coming inside the apartment block due to a quarantine order enforced by the government, and the tragedy has emerged as the final straw for a population no longer content with draconian pandemic restrictions while the rest of the world moves on.
