Production of iPad could be impacted by power use limit in Sichuan – analyst

 

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Production of the iPad could be impacted by restrictions on power use in Southwest China’s Sichuan province amid the worst heatwave in 60 years.

Sichuan provincial authority ordered a rationing of industrial electricity consumption, affecting major producers in 19 out of 21 cities across the region, with some industrial users told to suspend production from August 15 until August 29, in a bit to ensure residential power supplies, according to a notice on Monday. The list of producers includes some that work for Apple.

The outage could affect iPad assembly plants, including Foxconn’s facility in Chengdu and Compal’s factory in Chongqing, according to TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. While Kuo believes it is difficult to to assess the impact on production, it should be relatively limited until the restrictions lift on August 20.

He adds that flexible production scheduling should also lower the impact of power outages, but warns similar incidents could happen again in the coming months. These outages may be brief, but Kuo thinks they could impact product shipments during the peak season.