Apple and Microsoft laptops to resume production despite lockdown

Anyone who currently orders a notebook from Apple or other major manufacturers sometimes has to wait months for it. The reason is the lockdowns with which the Chinese government is trying to stop Corona. For some customers, there are now signs of improvement.

Such as the Taiwan branch service DigiTimes reports, the world’s largest contract notebook computer manufacturer, Quanta Computer, has begun to resume production at its Songjiang site in Shanghai. The company relies on the workers being able to live permanently on the factory site.

Only 10 percent of employees come back – and have to stay

According to industry sources, Quanta has started issuing new orders for the supply of components for the production of Songjiang notebooks. Initially, work there will resume with a greatly reduced workforce, it is said. Normally about 20,000 employees work on the site, but initially, production should only start again with about 2,000 employees. Initially, Quanta in Songjiang wants to serve orders from Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla. This should soon reduce the huge wait times for purchasing an Apple MacBook Pro, which is currently over 1.5 months, according to the report.

However, due to the reduced workforce, the factory utilization rate will remain quite low for the time being. Quanta reportedly plans to create a “fully isolated environment” in which finished products will be delivered by air freight. This probably also means that the workers cannot leave the factory and instead have to be fed locally and also have to spend the night there.

The competing contract manufacturer Inventec also relies on such a model when it comes to the further operation of the Shanghai plant. Production has continued there since the introduction of the new lockdown measures at the end of March, but the occupancy rate is expected to be only 20 to 30 percent.