Foxconn employees in India basically sat on their hands all week
More than 150 shipments to Foxconn’s Indian facilities from its factories in China said to contain smartphone and other electronic parts, have been stuck at the port of Chennai and some are being cleared now. The manufacturer’s two plants in India are located in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh state. Besides assembling certain Apple iPhone models in the country, the factories assemble some Xiaomi handsets; the latter’s value for money pricing plays very well in India. The plants have thousands of Indians on the payroll and many of them live in accommodations provided to them by Foxconn.
One source discussing the matter with Reuters said, “Foxconn was in a very bad state … lots of workers stayed at the dormitory because there was no work.” Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry did not respond to a request by Reuters for a comment. Two ministry officials did say that the extra scrutiny given all shipments imported into India are only temporary and will soon come to an end. One official in India said, “We cannot keep checking 100% of shipments forever … Shipments of non-Chinese companies being impacted will be cleared on priority.” Interestingly, customs has held back these shipments without a formal order.
The delays to imports from China are hitting India at a time when the supply chain is still impacted by the coronavirus. U.S.-India lobby groups are asking the government to intervene. Today, China’s commerce ministry said that it hoped that India would stop its discriminatory action against Chinese companies ASAP. The country recently banned 59 Chinese apps including wildly popular short-form video app TikTok.
For now, production of iPhone models in India are held up by this dispute as Foxconn employees get an extended vacation.
