By Li Panpan

Apple has decided to use Luxshare (立讯精密) as one of the assemblers for the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max, due to lowered production capacity in Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant because of the pandemic, TrendForce said in its latest research report on December 28.

The capacity utilization rate of Foxconn’s major iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou of central China’s Henan Province has not yet risen above the level of 70%. The pandemic outbreak and lockdown in Zhengzhou were at their worst just as Apple was trying to ramp up sales of the new iPhone models for this year to a peak, said the TrendForce report.

Besides the Zhengzhou base, Foxconn is drawing support from its major base in Shenzhen,

Luxshare has an iPhone assembly plant not only in China. It has a plant for assembling Apple-related accessories in Vietnam. But it currently has no plan for setting up a new iPhone production line there, said the TrendForce report.

As early as early December, it was revealed in Apple’s supply chain that Apple would expand the assembly supplier plant capacity. The Chinese mainland’s Luxshare Precision and Wingtech Technology may get the business, said JW Insights.

Due to the adjustment of the epidemic prevention policy and the approach of the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, the shortage of workers in China's supply chain in mid-December tends to expand. Apple might face a lack of assembly workers and weak sales from the slowed global economy. So TrendForce has also lowered its forecast of iPhone shipments (including all existing models) in 1Q23 to 47 million units, with a corresponding decline of 22%.