News briefing 

       

The number of daily, newly-diagnosed cases in India recently has further soared. Apart from ranking first in terms of diagnosed cases around the world, India also accounts for more than one-third of the world's total cases, making it one of the most severely affected areas worldwide. As predicted by Indian authorities, the number of new infections will only peak by mid-May, before they start to decline.

 

Impact analysis 

        

After adjustments for more than a year, though the world has gradually changed life and work patterns as a result of the pandemic, tighter restrictions will continue to affect product manufacturing in the industry to some extent due to restricted personnel mobility. 

When Covid exploded in India in early May, some countries had already started evacuating expatriates, while there were suggestions to place some restrictions on economic activities and even a nationwide blockade around India. Wistron, one of the iPhone OEM plants in India, had its Bangalore factory shut down for 5 days due to a curfew within the area. It was also confirmed that some of Foxconn’s factory employees in India had tested positive. For now, India’s manufacturing industry is in extreme turbulence and panic due to the proliferation of the pandemic.

 

        

The recent incident has once again evoked memories of the impact on production capacity around China in 2020 when the pandemic first broke out. Since India is a key development area, Apple aims to reduce a proportion of its production capacity in China on the iPhone SE, iPhone XR, iPhone SE 2020, iPhone 11, and iPhone 12 which was officially announced recently. Hence, the number of product categories made in India can hardly be reckoned as minimal. 

 

According to external estimates, although the proportion of production capacity transferred from China to India is still less than 10%, it would still take time to see the negative impact of the growing number of Covid cases in India on the promotion of manufacturing plans in India by Apple. 

 

On the other hand, Apple continues to be a crucial customer of circuit boards for Taiwan, especially after Huawei lost its market share. Thus, the influence of the iPhone on Taiwanese manufacturers has increased by the quarter, even though their performance is hardly sensitive to the fluctuation of production capacity ratio in the iPhone’s production area. However, the speed at which customers are moving out of China may affect the mindset of manufacturers in terms of their capacity adjustments.