APPLE SHARES FALL AMID REPORTS OF IPHONE BAN BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT

Fri 08 September 2023:

Following reports that China banned government employees from using iPhones or any other foreign gadgets for work purposes or bringing them into the office, Apple’s market worth has decreased by around $200 billion.

Apple’s stock dropped by roughly 3% on Thursday, and it has lost 6.4% in the past two days. The stocks of a number of the US IT giant’s main suppliers have also fallen.

The stock of ASE Technology Holding, one of the top semiconductor testing and packaging companies in the world, fell 2%, while that of camera lens manufacturer Largan Precision fell more than 3%. Taiwan’s TSMC, the largest contract chipmaker in the world and a significant Apple supplier, has lost more than 2% of its value.

In the US, public officials have been banned from using Chinese phones from such brands as Huawei, or downloading and using the popular Chinese-owned TikTok social media app on their government-issued devices. Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could attempt to gain access to American users’ data.

China, the largest foreign market for Apple products, could further expand its curbs on officials’ use of iPhones, according to Allen Huang, executive director of Mega International Investment Services Corp in Taipei, as cited by Reuters.

Chinese sales represented about a fifth of Apple’s total revenue last year.

For years, certain government organizations had prohibited the use of iPhones by employees. The policy’s scope appears to have been greatly increased by the most recent directive.

Beijing also required in February that foreign companies doing business in China, such as Apple, Amazon, and JPMorgan Chase, submit their data practices for examination before being permitted to export any locally generated data outside of the country.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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