Apple's iPhone factory shift has left a ghost town behind in China
Foxconn is closing factories in China as iPhone production moves elsewhere, and impacts beyond industry have been made crystal clear in a new video.

A Foxconn facility sign
Apple has long operated its production in China, but in recent years it has been shifting away. Production in India and Vietnam is growing, with fewer products being shipped out of China.
In a China Observer report released on Monday, footage of a Foxconn industrial park in Nanning is shown to be deserted. Once employing 50,000 people, it's now practically an empty shell. AppleInsider has learned that as Apple's operations have moved elsewhere, manufacturing capacity was freed elsewhere in China, leading to this plant's closure.
A local man told the report the plant required massive resources to go with its 50,000 employees. This included 60 tons of rice per day, as well as 280 pigs, 1.2 million eggs, and 80,000 chickens.
As well as the ghost town footage of the facility itself, the effects of the China exodus affected other nearby areas. Nearby skyscrapers built to house workers for the facility are struggling to make sales, even with steep discounts.
There isn't much hope to locals that Foxconn will be using the operation again anytime soon, as signs have been taken down. It is believed that only a few buildings are being actively used by Foxconn, with the vast majority either vacant or rented out.
The facility rot and abandonment is certainly a sign that Foxconn made changes to its overall operations. Especially since Apple is keen to shift production away from a China-centric system to one more distributed.
Some of its overseas operations have even benefited from the closure. Report sources say equipment from the facilities were taken to similar factories in Vietnam.
For local communities, the closure demonstrates how much wealth Apple's production can bring to an area. It also shows how quickly it can go away, and without any other backup industries, how damaging the movements can be.
Update April 29, 4:27 PM ET Updated with details about Foxconn's move out of the area, and why.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
It was very shortlived if it was that one and there could be penalisation clauses if it was built for Apple's needs and then Apple transferred production elsewhere.
If that project never got off the ground there could be other reasons afoot (apart from relocating production).
The only real way to gauge production output is a percentage of total China Apple output.
I appreciate that Apple is interested in adding more countries, like Indonesia, to its supply chain, while vacating a portion of its supply chain in China.
Foxconn is still making money from Apple.
But in the title appears only ’Apple’… As usual: “Blaming Apple brings page views… aka ad revenues-”
I doubt the conditions are the same today, but kudos to Foxconn/Huawei if they actually do pay better.
A 'nice try' would have seen me quote only the wages part.
I simply countered the original claim with factual information: the higher wages.
That's balance in the discussion.
It's worth noting that benefits vs wages is often a trade-off situation but it's more likely that higher wages will stimulate the local area economies more than 'benefits'.
Inflation though because of higher wages isn't as clear cut. Some say wages follow inflation and I think the Fed issued a report on this last year attributing 0.1% of a 3% rise in inflation to wages.
Ironically I am sitting on a train traveling home from Barcelona and not paying a cent. The train service is free this year (as it was last year) as an anti-inflationary measure and if anything, wages have been going down.
That's 1,000+ euros saved for me.
https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/03/29/spains-economy-thrives-why-its-growing-more-than-its-eu-rivals
You might want to link a source that indicates a general wage decrease.
I didn't find any other news mentionning it and Foxconn in Nanning isn't mentionned in the official supply list by Apple.
However I wouldn't be surprise that Apple is diversifying their factories considering how they are losing the Chinese markets to local brands like Huawei.
Anyway, at first glance and comparing data from 2012 and 2022, a 3.2% drop. Staggering really.
In Spanish:
https://www.elconfidencial.com/economia/2023-08-25/espana-salarios-bajos-decada_3723469/#:~:text=Hay solo seis países en,los últimos datos de Eurostat.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Spotlight/Apple-moves-closer-to-China-despite-supply-chain-shifts