Just how exposed is Apple to COVID-19 in Hubei?

Meiko is listed as a supplier to Apple in production years 2011 and 2012 . Apple did not disclose geographic locations in 2011, and Google's Geocoding API returned no results for the location string that Apple provided for the 2012 report, but it appears to be here:

What can we tell from each of these report records about Apple's supply chain presence in Hubei?

Looking at Apple's own supply chain transparency reports, we can at least partially verify this statement. Since 2011, Apple has disclosed three supplier locations in Hubei, which as of this writing has far and away the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases:

While our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside the Hubei province — and while all of these facilities have reopened — they are ramping up more slowly than we had anticipated.

On 2020-02-17, Apple published updated investor guidance addressing the degree to which their supply chain is vulnerable to disruption by COVID-19. In it, they note:

Regardless, Meiko has not appeared on Apple's supplier reports since then. Meiko has apparently been conscious of the risk of infectious disease for some time; their 2012 Investor Report specifically calls it out. As with other factories in the area, Meiko's Wuhan factory has been closed since 2020-01-22; as of 2020-02-14 they are planning to reopen on 2020-02-21.

Asia Vital Components

Asia Vital Components has appeared on Apple's supplier reports since the production year 2013. In production year 2019, they were listed in four report records:

4901: West Industry Park, XinYang Industrial Zone, Shajing Town, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

4902: No. 9 Longquan Road, Fuzuling Street, East Lake High-tech Zone, Wuhan, Hubei, China

4903: No. 5, Lane 8, RongJiang Road, Songjiang Export Processing Zone, Shanghai, China

4904: No. 188, Building 9, Jinxi Zhenjin Road, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China

According to their website, AVC supplies a variety of components related to cooling and electronics cases. Their website's "news" section hasn't been updated since 2017, and their US sales office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. According to a 2017 blog post on the English website for the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, AVC's Wuhan facility makes "spindles, computer cases, and heat-dissipation models."

Foxconn

Foxconn's presence in Apple's supply chain cannot be understated. In 2019 alone they appeared in 35 report records.

Foxconn's Hubei factory is listed at `No. 1 GuangGu Second Road, Dong Hu New Technical Development Zone, Wuhan, Hubei, China` in Apple's supply chain transparency reports. According to Xinhua, parts of the Dong Hu New Technical Development Zone have already returned to work as of 2020-02-15, but Foxconn is not mentioned in the article and their website only says that "As a matter of policy and for reasons of commercial sensitivity, we do not comment on our specific production facilities."

According to a 2007 report on MIC, Foxconn's Wuhan facility is "dedicated to the production of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors and DSCs (Digital Still Cameras). Moreover, LED (Light Emitting Diode) manufacturing is included in the future plan as well. Foxconn is expected to invest approximately US$3 billion in this facility covering an area of more than 10,000 acres. With an estimated workforce of 150,000 to 200,000, Foxconn's Wuhan production base is expected to turn out 15 million LCD monitors and 30 million DSCs per year."

Of course, the impact on Apple's supply chain will not be limited to the facilities located within Hubei. But as the epicenter of the outbreak, it is likely that the products that Apple sources from Wuhan will loom large in any supply chain disruptions in the coming months. Specifically, we expect that cases, cooling & heat dissipation systems, LCDs, camera modules, and LEDs are likely to be the hardest hit components in Apple's supply chain.