COVID-19 Affected Major Chip Supplier, Apple Inc. Explore New Chip Vendors From China

Apple Inc., explores a new chip vendor from China. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Apple Inc., Wednesday, March 30, is exploring to find a new supplier for the memory chips used in its iPhones. These suppliers include manufacturers from China which have the potential to be their main vendors. This assessment was carried out after their main partner from Japan experienced production disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan-based Kioxia Holdings Corp., which has been a major supplier of flash memory chips to Apple, reported COVID-19 contamination last month at two of its manufacturing facilities. This condition, according to a source company at Kioxia, will result in a reduction in production.

According to a company report cited by Reuters, Apple is now testing samples of a NAND flash memory chip by Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. They added that the iPhone maker had been discussing the bond for months.

Yangtze declined to comment and Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.

Earlier this month, another major Apple supplier, Foxconn, also had to suspend operations in Shenzhen due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. If this condition is not immediately addressed, Apple is expected to have difficulty meeting their smartphone production and sales targets. Of course, this is not good news for the company led by Tim Cook.

Competition among the world's mobile phone manufacturers is now getting tougher. If Apple fails to meet its production targets, Samsung and Oppo may take advantage of the market gap left by Apple.

Persistent industry-wide shortages of chips have also disrupted production in the auto and electronics industries, forcing some companies to cut production.