Apple Inc tells its suppliers to speed up iPhone development after China's strict COVID-19 lockdowns hampered schedule for at least one of the new phones

Lockdowns due to China's zero-COVID policy led iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp  to suspend operations at its Shanghai and Kunshan plants earlier this year.

Financial hub Shanghai remains largely paralysed by a city-wide lockdown, which is now in its seventh week, while Beijing has ramped up quarantine efforts. 

Apple last month forecast bigger problems as COVID-19 lockdowns snarled production and demand in China, with the war in Ukraine adding to the iPhone maker's woes. 

In the worst-case scenario, Apple expects the manufacturing schedule and initial production volumes of the new phones to be hurt, the Nikkei business daily reported.