The coronavirus outbreak has seriously affected the operation of Apple's supply chain. Photo: cnsphoto

As the coronavirus pandemic eases in China, production at Apple's top supplier Foxconn is also recovering and exceeding the expected capacity. However, industry insiders said the company is just making up for output lost in February and March, and the top issue for Apple now is lethargic demand.

A human resources manager at Foxconn surnamed Ding said on Tuesday that the entire group in China has stopped hiring because the factories are already running at full capacity and employees are working overtime.

Ding said that it very easy to hire people nowadays because it is hard to find jobs as the result of the outbreak, so salaries are the same as before.

Terry Gou, founder of the world's largest contract electronics maker, said in an interview in March that the return to work at Foxconn factories in China had exceeded expectations and supplies to its plants in the nation and in Vietnam had returned to pre-epidemic levels, according to a Reuters report on March 12.

Industry insiders said that the factories may be speeding up work related to new products such as the iPhone 9 or iPhone SE, which will reportedly be launched soon.

An employee at Apple China told the Global Times Tuesday that there was no information concerning the launch of new products.

Front Page Tech analyst Jon Prosser said on his Twitter account on March 26 that due to economic pressures and shareholder obligations, Apple is considering releasing the iPhone 9 in April.

The iPhone 9 is likely to be priced at the same level as the iPhone SE, or a minimum of $399, which would be the cheapest model available, domestic technology site mydrivers.com reported on Tuesday.

The post about the new iPhone immediately went viral online, with media outlets and experts speculating that it might be a new strategy for Apple to alleviate the impact of the pandemic.

Contrary to expectations, sales of Foxconn fell 7.7 percent in March, according to a Reuters report on Monday.

Foxconn did not respond to a request for a comment as of press time.

Liang Zhenpeng, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday that although the supply chain in China is returning to normal and there are expectations for new product launches, Apple may still face big losses this year.

"Because the global mobile phone market is shrinking, consumers don't have much demand, despite the reviving supply chain," Liang said. 

"The coronavirus outbreak has led to an overall contraction of the Chinese and global markets. Factory suspensions have had a huge impact on Apple and its industry chain that cannot be fully offset in a short time."

Liang said that the launch of new products, if any, would not make much difference to Apple as the global coronavirus outbreak continuous.