Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn on Thursday ended the confinement of the world’s largest iPhone factory – which operated in “closed circuit” for 56 days – in line with Beijing’s gradual abandonment of the strategy. zero COVID.
“In view of […] the lifting of epidemic control measures in China, the company requires employees to present a negative PCR test within 48 hours in order to return to work,” reads a notice posted on the official WeChat account of “iPhone city” on Thursday. , Foxconn’s main factory in China, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
The company has urged employees who have not been stuck in the “closed circuit” bubble to return to work “as soon as possible”.
Foxconn thus ended a 56-day confinement of the factory: workers were only allowed to move between their dormitories and their place of work on board specific shuttles.
This factory employs some 200,000 people, most of whom live on site in dormitories.
Faced since October with an increase in cases of coronavirusshe was previously confined.
At the end of November, hundreds of employees had expressed their anger against their living conditions under this “closed circuit” bubble regime. Employees had even fled, resulting in a labor shortage.
On Wednesday, Chinese health authorities announced a general easing of health restrictions, after angry protests in several Chinese cities, and also in the hope of reviving the world’s second largest economy, suffocated by “zero COVID”.
The lockdown-induced shutdown of the factory has had a huge impact on Foxconn’s hiring practices and destabilized the supply chain, to which Beijing attaches great importance.
Last month, Foxconn’s revenue fell 11.4% year-on-year.
Foxconn had already announced that it was revising downwards its forecasts for the last quarter of the year. Some analysts predict a drop in sales of up to 20%.