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☆ Market watchers' comments on COVID-19 protests in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what market watchers are saying about the unrest:ALLAN VON MEHREN, CHIEF ANALYST, DANSKE BANK, COPENHAGEN:"Normally protests in China are aimed at local governments but a crowd in Shanghai directed their protest against the Communist Party and Xi Jinping." "The protests come as the recent tweaks in the zero-Covid policy seem to have backfired as they led to rising cases across the country that subsequently triggered new restrictions being implemented. MARK HAEFELE, GLOBAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT CIO, UBS, ZURICH:"We do not expect economic or market headwinds in China to abate significantly over the coming months. KEN CHEUNG, CHIEF ASIA FX STRATEGIST, MIZUHO, HONG KONG:"The China economy is heading to the direction of reopening but the road to the reopening could be a bumpy one. GARY NG, ECONOMIST, NATIXIS, HONG KONG:"The market does not like uncertainties that are difficult to price and the China protests clearly fall into this category.

☆ Comments from market watchers on the COVID-19 protests in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

ALVIN TAN, ASIA FX STRATEGIST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, SINGAPORE:"The scale of the protests will necessarily elicit a response from Beijing. KEN CHEUNG, CHIEF ASIA FX STRATEGIST, MIZUHO, HONG KONG:"The China economy is heading to the direction of reopening but the road to the reopening could be a bumpy one. "Overall, the China Q4 growth outlook should remain grim given the COVID resurgence and the related mobility tightening. GARY NG, ECONOMIST, NATIXIS, HONG KONG:"The market does not like uncertainties that are difficult to price and the China protests clearly fall into this category. MARTIN PETCH, VICE PRESIDENT, MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE:"We expect the protests ... to dissipate relatively quickly and without resulting in serious political violence.

[1/2] Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announces to resign as Democratic Progressive Party chair to take responsibility for the party's performance in the local elections in Taipei, Taiwan, November 26, 2022. REUTERS/Ann WangTAIPEI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Attention is turning to Taiwan's next presidential election in 2024 after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was thrashed at local elections on Saturday, with President Tsai Ing-wen's move to focus on China backfiring with voters. Speaking to reporters late on Saturday at party headquarters, its chairman Eric Chu said the KMT understood that only by uniting could it win. But Tsai's strategy failed to mobilise voters, who disassociated geopolitics from the local elections which traditionally focus more on issues from crime to pollution. Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said last week Taiwan was seeing less Chinese interference ahead of the local elections, possibly due to China's own domestic problems and its efforts to improve its international image.

☆ Foxconn unrest risks iPhone shipments, weighs on Apple shares
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Yimou Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Apple shares were down 1.9% in late morning trade on Friday, while the benchmark Nasdaq index was down 0.3%. LOWER SHIPMENTSKGI Securities analyst Christine Wang said if the current issue lasts through December, around 10 million units of iPhone production will be lost, which translates to 12% lower iPhone shipment in the last quarter of 2022. REUTERS/Ann Wang 1 2Wedbush Securities estimates many Apple stores now have 25% to 30% fewer iPhone 14 Pros than normal heading into the holiday shopping season. In a statement on Nov. 7, Apple said it expected lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than previously anticipated. Another Foxconn source familiar with the matter said some new hires had left the campus but did not elaborate on how many.

☆ More than 20,000 new hires have left Apple supplier Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant in China - Foxconn source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Yimou Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TAIPEI, Nov 25 (Reuters) - More than 20,000 employees, most of them were new hires not yet working on the production line, have left Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn's (2317.TW) Zhengzhou plant in China, a Foxconn source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. The worker departures come after the Taiwanese firm offered on Thursday 10,000 yuan ($1,396) to employees who wanted to resign and leave the chaos-hit plant. Videos posted on Chinese social media on Friday showed crowds and long lines of luggage-laden workers queuing for buses. A second Foxconn source familiar with the matter said some new hires had left the campus but did not elaborate on how many. The curbs forced the company to isolate many employees and the plant's conditions prompted several to flee.

☆ Exclusive: Foxconn woes could hit at least 30% of iPhone Nov shipments from China plant -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Customers shop at the Apple Fifth Avenue store for the release of the Apple iPhone 14 range in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 16, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew KellyTAIPEI, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Production of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhones could slump by at least 30% at Foxconn's factory in China's city of Zhengzhou after worker unrest disrupted operations, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. The estimate was an upward revision of an October internal forecast for production impact of up to 30% at the world's largest iPhone factory, said the source, who sought anonymity as the information was private. read moreFollowing this week's bout of worker unrest at the plant, the source added, it was "impossible" for the company to resume full production by the end of the month - a deadline it had set internally before Wednesday's wave of protests. Reporting by Yimou Lee and Taipei newsroom; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Larger protests under control at Foxconn's major iPhone factory in China - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TAIPEI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Larger protests at Foxconn's (2317.TW) flagship iPhone plant in China were under control and the company continued to communicate with employees engaged in smaller protests, a source said on Thursday. Hundreds of workers joined protests at Foxconn's major iPhone plant China's Zhengzhou this week, with some men smashing surveillance cameras and windows, footage uploaded on social media showed. read moreReporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Apple supplier Foxconn apologises for hiring blunder at COVID-hit China plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Workers said on videos circulated on social media that they had been informed that Foxconn intended to delay bonus payments. The person said the company had reached "initial agreements" with employees to resolve the dispute and production at the plant continued on Thursday. The Zhengzhou plant employs more than 200,000 people to make Apple Inc (AAPL.O) devices including the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. Apple said it had staff at the factory and was "working closely with Foxconn to ensure their employees' concerns are addressed”. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives expects the shutdowns to cost Apple about $1 billion a week in lost iPhone sales.

A source familiar with the situation in Zhengzhou said production at the plant was unaffected by the worker unrest and output remained "normal". It makes most of the phones at the Zhengzhou plant, though it has other smaller production sites in India and southern China. Shares of Foxconn have slipped 2% since the unrest emerged in late October. Before the unrest, the Zhengzhou plant employed some 200,000 people. To retain staff and lure more workers Foxconn has had to offer bonuses and higher salaries.

☆ Apple Inc supplier Foxconn's China plant hit by fresh worker unrest - social media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The videos showed more than a hundred people clustered outside and coming face to face with dozens of hazmat-suited officials, who they said were police. Some videos showed workers complaining about the food they had been provided while others said they had not been paid bonuses as promised. The Zhengzhou plant is the world's largest iPhone factory with some 200,000 workers. It has maintained so-called closed-loop operations at the plant - a system in which staff live and work on-site isolated from the wider world - due to the COVID situation in Zhengzhou. The curbs and discontent have hit production, prompting Apple Inc to say earlier this month that it expected lower shipments of premium iPhone 14 models.

TAIPEI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier and iPhone assembler Foxconn (2317.TW) said on Tuesday it had hired Chiang Shang-yi, a former top executive at Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW) and Chinese chipmaker SMIC, to lead its growing push in the chip business. Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is best known for assembling iPhones and other Apple products, though in recent years it has been expanding into chips to diversify its business. Chiang previously worked as vice president of research and development at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker. He was more recently the vice chairman of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (0981.HK) (SMIC), the largest and most advanced chipmaker in China. Chiang resigned from his position at SMIC last November, roughly a year after joining the company for the second time.

[1/5] Posters from Taiwan People's Party can be seen on the streets ahead of the election in Taipei, Taiwan, November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Ann WangTAIPEI, Nov 18 (Reuters) - China's belligerence towards Taiwan and the future of the island's democracy are taking centre stage in campaigns ahead of local elections next week, a key test of the ruling party's support before a presidential vote in early 2024. The Nov. 26 mayoral and councillor polls are nominally about domestic issues such as transport and the COVID-19 pandemic rather than China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory. "Russia has invaded Ukraine and Taiwan is facing the threat of China," Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters this week. "The China issue is not an issue for local elections," he told Reuters.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. the person said, adding that the calls would connect but Chinese officials wouldn't pick up. Based on a long-standing practice, faxes continue to be exchanged between two semi-official organisations that handle routine affairs: Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. The council told Reuters that while Chinese officials do not reply directly, they have handled Taiwanese requests when needed or responded through public statements. China this year labeled Tsai's administration "evil" while Taiwan called China "incredibly absurd".

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, opened the India plant in 2019 and has been ramping up production. Foxconn has shared its plans with Tamil Nadu officials about accelerating its hiring efforts at the Indian plant due to disruptions in China, said the first government source. "We are gradually increasing our production scale there," the person said, declining to give details on its hiring plans in India. The second government source in India, a senior official in the Tamil Nadu administration, said the state government was working with Foxconn in "finalising" the expansion. Currently, iPhones are assembled in India by at least three of Apple's global suppliers: Foxconn and Pegatron (4938.TW) in Tamil Nadu; and Wistron (3231.TW) in nearby Karnataka state.

TAIPEI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr will visit Taiwan this week, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan said on Wednesday, the latest senior official from the country to visit the island. Carr will meet with "Taiwan interlocutors" to discuss issues including telecommunications and cybersecurity from November 2-4, the American Institute in Taiwan said in a statement to Reuters. China has stepped up military activities near democratically governed Taiwan since August when it conducted blockade drills around the island following a visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Taiwan's government says the People's Republic of China has never ruled the island and so its sovereignty claims are void. Reporting By Sarah Wu and Yimou Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Chinese zone housing major Apple iPhone plant imposes fresh lockdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Brenda Goh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 2 (Reuters) - A Chinese industral park that hosts an iPhone factory belonging to Foxconn (2317.TW) announced a fresh COVID-19 lockdown on Wednesday, raising questions about its impact on the Apple (AAPL.O) supplier's efforts to quell discontent at the factory. Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, is Apple's biggest iPhone maker, producing 70% of iPhone shipments globally. It makes most of the phones at the Zhengzhou plant where it employs about 200,000 people, though it has other smaller production sites in India and south China. Several employees also fled the factory, prompting Foxconn to offer generous bonuses to retain staff. read moreWednesday's lockdown marks a re-tightening of measures in Zhengzhou, which unexpectedly lifted a quasi-lockdown on its nearly 13 million people the day before.

☆ Apple supplier Foxconn quadruples bonuses to staff hit by China COVID lockdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The original bonus scheme was initially outlined in an article on Monday by the government backed Henan Daily newspaper citing a senior unnamed Foxconn executive. CLOSED LOOP TOLLVideos circulating on social media appear to show departing Foxconn workers laden with luggage and walking along village roads towards their home towns. Many people who said they were Foxconn workers turned to social media to complain about receiving insufficient food or about the uncertainty of the situation. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Henan Daily article. The Henan Daily is the official newspaper of Henan province, of which Zhengzhou is the capital.

☆ Apple supplier Foxconn gives bonuses to staff hit by COVID lockdown - media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) is handing bonuses to workers at its Zhengzhou plant in central China, Chinese government-backed media reported, as it works to quell employee discontent at the site over COVID curbs. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Henan Daily article. The Henan Daily is the official newspaper of the province of Henan, of which Zhengzhou is the capital. It makes most of the phones at the Zhengzhou plant where it employs about 200,000 people, though it has other smaller production sites in India and south China. The Zhengzhou plant has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, with several workers fleeing the site over the weekend.

☆ Apple supplier Foxconn gives pay rise to staff hit by COVID lockdown - media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) has increased wages and is handing bonuses to workers at its Zhengzhou plant in central China, Chinese government-backed media reported, as it works to quell employee discontent at the site over COVID curbs. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Henan Daily article. The Henan Daily is the official newspaper of the province of Henan, of which Zhengzhou is the capital. It makes most of the phones at the Zhengzhou plant where it employs about 200,000 people, though it has other smaller production sites in India and south China. The Zhengzhou plant has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, with several workers fleeing the site over the weekend.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Output of Apple iPhones at major China plant could fall 30% amid COVID curbs -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Yimou Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The logo of Foxconn is pictured on top of the company's headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan October 31, 2022. A second person familiar with the situation said many workers remained at the Zhengzhou plant and that production was continuing. Foxconn on Oct. 19 banned dining at canteens at the Zhengzhou plant and required workers to eat meals in dormitories. Foxconn has not disclosed whether any workers at the Zhengzhou site had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Authorities have since Oct. 19 reported 264 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province.

☆ Exclusive: Foxconn COVID woes may hit up to 30% of iPhone November output from Zhengzhou plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Yimou Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

It also builds the device in India and southern China, but its Zhengzhou factory assembles the majority of its global output. A second person familiar with the situation said many workers remained at the Zhengzhou plant and that production was continuing. Foxconn on Oct. 19 banned dining at canteens at the Zhengzhou plant and required workers to eat meals in dormitories. Foxconn and local authorities have not disclosed the number of any infected workers at the site. Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, has since Oct. 19 reported 264 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.

☆ Foxconn COVID woes may hit up to 30% of iPhone Nov shipments from Zhengzhou plant - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TAIPEI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Apple supplier (AAPL.O) Foxconn's (2317.TW) COVID-19 woes at its vast iPhone manufacturing facility in China's Zhengzhou city could slash the site's November iPhone shipments by up to 30%,a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The source, who declined to be identified as the information was private, said Foxconn is now working to boost iPhone production at its factory in the southern city of Shenzhen. Foxconn referred Reuters to a statement it released late on Sunday, in which the company said the situation was gradually coming under control and Foxconn would coordinate back-up production capacity with its other plants to reduce any potential impact. read moreApple did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"With the zero-COVID policy here to stay, we think the economy will continue to struggle heading into 2023," Zichun Huang, economist at Capital Economics, said in a research note. At this month's twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping reiterated China's commitment to its zero-COVID policy, disappointing investors and countless Chinese frustrated by lockdowns, travel curbs and testing. "We don't expect the zero-COVID policy to be abandoned until 2024, which means virus disruptions will keep in-person services activity subdued," said Huang from Capital Economics. New cases in mainland China hit 2,898 on Sunday, topping 2,000 for a second straight day, a tiny number by global standards. However, in Beijing the Universal Resort theme park reopened on Monday after being shut last week because one visitor had tested positive for coronavirus.

☆ Large explosion in Taiwan's CPC Dalin oil refinery, no injuries
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Oct 28 (Reuters) - An explosion hit Taiwan's state-backed CPC Dalin Refinery in the southern city of Kaohsiung on Thursday night, videos and images from the Fire Department showed with heavy fire seen above the plant, officials said, adding nobody was hurt in the incident. The city's fire department said flames were put out early on Friday and no one was injured or trapped as per an initial investigation. CPC spokesperson Ray Chang said there was "very limited impact" on the company's output, as it has several other such units in its facilities across the island. The unit, which has a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day according to Refinitiv Eikon, is used to remove sulphur from oil products. The incident happened during routine maintenance at the plant, the city government said.

☆ Taiwan urges China to stop sabre-rattling and start talking
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

China has stepped up military activities near democratically governed Taiwan since August, when it conductd to blockade drills around the island following a visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We urge mainland China to lay down arms and maintain peace and stability. China has repeatedly rebuffed offers for talks on the basis of equality with mutual respect by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who Beijing views as a separatist. China considers Taiwan its own territory. Taipei says only the island's 23 million people can decide their future, and that as Taiwan has never been ruled by the People's Republic of China its sovereignty claims are void.

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