Foxconn Boosts iPhone 5s Production

Foxconn has boosted its production of the iPhone 5s running factories around the clock and adding more workers to its production lines, according to the WSJ. Some of the increased capacity requested by Apple comes at the expense of the cheaper iPhone 5c.

The Taiwan-based contract manufacturer, which has more than one million workers in China, has operated 100 production lines around the clock in Zhengzhou, north central China, at full capacity, according to executives at Hon Hai. The company has about 300,000 workers at its Zhengzhou site , dedicated to just making the iPhone 5S and key components such as metal casings.

An executive says that the company has about 600 workers on each iPhone 5s production line. In comparison, the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 require about 500 workers per production line because the assembly procedure is less complicated.


“We have been churning out about 500,000 iPhone 5Ss everyday, the highest daily output ever,” said the executive. “Although the market had concerns over demand for the new iPhone before its launch, our Zhengzhou site’s production capacity for iPhones has continued to grow over the past two years.”

Apple is now shipping the iPhone 5s within 3-5 business days. Also a recent survey of Apple Stores found that 90% of iPhone 5s models are in stock. This will be important to Apple as the holiday shopping season gets started this weekend.

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