Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, Apple’s main supplier, announced on Monday that it was suspending its activities in the Chinese technology center of Shenzhen, confined by the government due to an epidemic wave of Covid-19.
“Foxconn’s business in Shenzhen, China has been suspended from March 14 in accordance with the local government’s new Covid-19 policy,” the Taiwanese company said in a statement.
Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers and maker of iPhones, has its largest factory in the world in Shenzhen, which employs tens of thousands of people. The Taiwanese company, also known as Hon Hai Precision, did not specify how long it would keep its factory closed, but moved production to other sites.
The city of Shenzhen, located on the border with Hong Kong in the south of the country, put in place a containment on Sunday to fight an outbreak of the Omicron variant in factories and neighborhoods of the city, which records dozens of deaths every day. deaths due to the spread of the virus.
Nine other Chinese cities are currently under lockdown, with authorities reporting 2,300 new coronavirus cases nationwide on Monday and nearly 3,400 the day before, the highest daily figure for two years.
Tech stocks plunged on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday as investors worried regarding the impact of the spread of the virus in Shenzhen, where the centers of Foxconn, Huawei and Tencent are located.