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Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group has resumed recruitment at the world's largest iPhone factory, located in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, following a brief suspension after US President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods earlier this month. Several jobseekers and a company manager at the Zhengzhou facility, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the South China Morning Post on Monday that hiring activity resumed this week after an unusual pause last week. Due to its large manpower needs and seasonal production schedules, the plant typically posts job vacancies throughout the year.
Still, demand for workers at the facility appears to have declined. The latest recruitment notice, published late on Sunday, indicates that the company is looking for workers to sign up for three-month contracts, and offering an hourly rate of 20 yuan (92 baht) for temporary workers. One jobseeker from the nearby city of Zhoukou, who only provided her surname, Yin, said she had submitted a pre-application to Foxconn and was scheduled for an on-site interview at the Zhengzhou facility.
The resumption of hiring occurred shortly after the Trump administration announced a temporary exemption for electronic products, including smartphones, from "reciprocal" tariffs. However, officials clarified on Monday that those products could still face semiconductor tariffs in the coming months. Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and known also as Hon Hai Precision Industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The sudden halt and subsequent restart of hiring at Foxconn highlight the disruption caused by the US-China tariff war to Apple's supply chain, one of the largest and most valuable in the world, developed over decades and comprising more than a hundred suppliers. The hiring pause at the Zhengzhou plant was first reported by local recruitment agencies on April 7, days after Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs targeting goods from China and other countries. Analysts have said that Trump's escalating tariffs could lead to significant price increases for the iPhone, Apple's most lucrative product, once the new tariffs are implemented.
At the same time, the shift of iPhone production from China to other countries continues. Apple subcontractors assembled US$22 billion (737 billion baht) worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months that ended in March, marking a nearly 60% increase in production, according to a Bloomberg News report. One in five iPhones was manufactured in India, the report said.
Trump's tariffs could add an additional US$240 to the price of each iPhone sold in the US, according to Huatai Securities. If these costs were fully passed on to consumers, retail prices in North America could rise by 24%, analysts wrote in a recent report to clients. While China remains Apple's largest overseas market and its primary assembly hub for iPhones and many other devices, the tariff war is expected to accelerate the production shift to other countries, according to Counterpoint.
Such a reconfiguration of the supply chain would take years and require significant government subsidies and a robust supply of skilled workers, the consultancy said..
