LG Innotek, supplier of iPhone cameras, closes its factory after coronavirus case

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What you need to know

  • LG Innotek makes camera modules for Apple's iPhones.
  • Its factory in Gumi, South Korea has been closed.
  • A worker was confirmed to have contracted coronavirus.

LG Innotek, a supplier of the camera modules used in iPhones, has closed a factory in Gumi, South Korea. The move comes after a member of the factory's workforce was confirmed to have contracted coronavirus.

The factory closed over the weekend, according to a Reuters report. An official also confirmed that the facility will remain out of action through Monday while decontamination takes place. However, it isn't confirmed that it will re-open on Tuesday, let alone be able to function at full capacity.

Whether this will have any real impact on iPhone production is unclear. LG Innotek may well be the company producing camera modules for the upcoming iPhone 12, but mass production is still months away from kicking into gear. It's perhaps a little early for that to be put at risk.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that he believes the current coronavirus issues facing the company's manufacturing partners is a temporary issue, rather than one that will run and run.

"And so the question for us after we get on the other side will be, was the resilience there or not and do we need to make some changes... My perspective sitting here today is that if there are changes, you're talking about adjusting some knobs, not some sort of wholesale fundamental change."

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.