(Yicai Global) Nov. 11 -- Hon Hai Technology Group, a Chinese Apple supplier, will lower its fourth-quarter earnings forecast due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak at the world's largest iPhone production base.

The Zhengzhou plant of Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, is gradually back on track after some adjustments and will try to return to normal capacity in the shortest possible time, The Paper reported, citing Liu Yangwei, chairman of the New Taipei-based firm, speaking at a company event yesterday.

The pandemic has affected the company's work on iPhone 14 Pro shipments since October. Apple said earlier it will prioritize the health and safety of workers in the supply chain and work closely with its suppliers to restore normal production.

A Foxconn insider told The Paper that thanks to the government and Foxconn's clients, the Zhengzhou plant is expecting to resume full capacity late this month.

The provincial government in Henan supports Foxconn as always, per the firm. Foxconn will work closely together with the local government to put out the outbreak as quickly as possible and resume full-capacity production, it added.

The Zhengzhou factory has more than 200,000 employees so it takes a lot of management skills to balance pandemic prevention regulations and production, Liu said. The firm needs to consider many aspects including policy, medical health, and output so the biggest challenge is maintaining employee health as well as safe production.

Foxconn has three factories in the central Chinese city while the biggest one is located at the Airport Economy Zone. It mainly makes smartphones.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi