Report: Chennai Foxconn Factory to Start iPhone 13 Production in April
16 MARCH 2022 - Partly to tackle India and partly to diversify production, a famous Foxconn facility on the subcontinent will start iPhone 13 production next month. Well, famous… infamous… it’s a fine line.
Apple Insider says Apple’s contract manufacturing partner is set to start rolling iPhone 13s out of a factory near Chennai. What makes the facility infamous is the set of problems it had at the end of last year. Initially, it was thought the facility was hit with food poisoning that sent over 150 people to the hospital, with another 250+ treated as outpatients. That led to protests over poor conditions, which closed a highway, which led to detainments and arrests. Then Apple looked into conditions at the factory, and boy were they bad. Apple’s investigation found overcrowded living quarters, toilets with no running water, and - according to one village-level administrator, “no safeguards to prevent COVID-19 infections.”
Plus, there was the whole food poisoning thing.
Apple put the plant on probation. Foxconn then undertook corrective measures and began slowly reopening the plant. Now, a couple of months later, they seem ready to go full bore. Citing a report from Business Standard, Apple Insider says:
…Apple is expected to use the (…) facility [near Chennai] to manufacture the iPhone 13 in April. The iPhones produced at the plant will be intended both for domestic sales and for export to other territories.
