Bad Sign for Tech: Idle FoxConn Factory
By: Orders have slowed down significantly since February at the FoxConn factory in Shenzen, China, factory workers told CNBC on Tuesday.
"There are no orders, generally there is nothing to do," one FoxConn worker told CNBC.
FoxConn, which is a Taiwanese company that manufactures electronics, is a supplier to tech giants that include Apple, Dell and Amazon. Its productivity is often seen as a barometer for how the technology industry is fairing.
As a result, there may be looming storm clouds on the horizon for the technology sector — and by extension the economy as a whole.
According to Apple's list of final assembly facilities, the Shenzen factory is where some iPhone, iPods, MacBooks and iPads are put together and shipped.
The worker, who inspects iPads, said that he normally made about $480 a month, but said he would be lucky to make two-thirds of that this month.
"There's no overtime," he said. "A lot of people have left."
FoxConn, though, said in a statement to CNBC that 97 percent of its employees returned to the Shenzhen factory after the Lunar New year holiday, which was in February. However, it did acknowledge that the season following the new year was normally slow.
"The post-Lunar new year period has always been considered low season in the consumer electronics industry," FoxConn said in a statement.
--Reported by CNBC's Eunice Yoon
