Workers at Chinese factories that assemble iPhones and iPads were not called in to work overtime for the first time in early October, Nikkei reported, citing sources. According to the publication, due to problems with supply chains, the conveyors were suspended for the first time in more than 10 years.
On October 1, China celebrates the Day of the People’s Republic of China, followed by a long weekend (one of the three so-called “golden weeks”). “Due to the limited number of components and chips, it was pointless to work on weekends and pay overtime with front-line workers. This has never happened before, ”said one of the supply chain managers.
The Nikkei named five factors that affected the supply of each of the iPhone 13 components: power limits in China, lockdown in Malaysia, restrictions in Vietnam, limited supply and other supply chain disruptions. The publication named the sixth factor that the orders of the components could be adjusted due to the mismatch of parts to each other. “Even if you have 99% of the components on hand, but don’t have one, two or three parts, you can’t start the final assembly of the product,” said Nikkei, the head of one of Apple’s main suppliers.
Other electronics and electronic component manufacturers have reported problems with order fulfillment ahead of the Nikkei holidays. Acer CEO Jason Chen described the industry as unprecedented. “Decades of experience in the industry is not enough. Nobody has come across this before. None of us know how to properly deal with such difficulties, ”he said.
As Kommersant previously reported, retailers in Russia are faced with a shortage of not only the iPhone 13 presented this year, but also a number of popular models of the previous iPhone 12 series. According to analysts, the company’s share in the Russian market fell from 14.5 % up to 11%.
More details – in the article “Kommersant” “They played an evil trick with the iPhone.”
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