Pegatron Company, iPhone manufacturersuspended production at two subsidiaries in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan due to strict measures against Covid-19.
Shanghai, a major business center, became the focus of the largest outbreak of Covid-19 in China since the coronavirus appeared more than two years ago.
The city of 25 million has been almost totally confined since the beginning of April.
We have temporarily suspended work,” Pegatron said in a letter to the Taiwan stock exchange on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese firm said it is “actively cooperating with local authorities” and will try to resume operations as soon as possible.
The suspensions apply to two subsidiaries, in Shanghai and the neighboring city of Kunshan.
The lockdown and strict testing rules have hit supply chains in and around Shanghai, home to the world’s busiest container port.
China reported on Wednesday almost 28,000 cases of the coronavirusmostly in Shanghai.
Several factories were forced to suspend operations due to the emergence of Covid-19 cases, while some workers have stayed to live in their workplaces so that the companies can continue operating.
suspensions of Pegatron are a new blow to Manzanawhich has suffered interruptions in the assembly of other suppliers in recent months due to Covid-19 infections in China.
In March, the supplier Foxconn suspended operations in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, although it resumed operations in late March when the city lifted its lockdown.
Chinese authorities have struggled to keep goods flowing into the country in the face of health measures that reduce travel.
As the spring farming season approaches, authorities in hotspot areas such as the northeastern province of Jilin have issued travel permits so farmworkers can reach the fields by chartered buses.
The Chinese economy has faced a growing risk of recession since mid-March,” analysts at the firm Nomura warned, citing interruptions in exports due to sanitary controls in coastal areas.