Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has said the bulk of its spending on production facilities will continue to be in China, despite the major disruption at its plants caused by Beijing’s zero-Covid policy. Foxconn chair Liu Young-way told investors on an earnings call on Thursday that the recent upheaval at its 200,000-strong factory town in Zhengzhou, which led to some workers scaling fences and walking home, was a crisis created by the pandemic.

The hit to production of iPhones forced a rare warning from Apple this week of lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than anticipated, and customers experiencing longer wait times to receive their products.

The higher transmissibility of the virus and “the country’s dynamic zero- Covid policy”, were to blame, Liu said. “How to meet those requirements is a challenge for us. Not just Zhengzhou, but other plants and our competitors face the same challenge.” He said he hoped Beijing could change its policy as the virus became less deadly.