CHENNAI (Reuters) – Apple supplier Pegatron has temporarily stopped iPhone assembly at its factory in south India after a fire incident occurred on Sunday night, according to three sources who spoke to Reuters.
The Taiwanese company has cancelled all shifts for the day at the facility near Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, and has yet to inform assembly workers if operations will resume on Tuesday, two of the sources added. Pegatron said in a statement to Reuters that the incident, described as a “spark incident,” is currently under control and does not have a significant financial or operational impact on the company.
Apple has not responded to a request for comment.
A local official from the emergency responses department confirmed that multiple fire engines from various stations were brought in to extinguish the fire, which took approximately five hours.
“There are no injuries, casualties, or damage to other assets. The cause of the accident is currently being investigated by the relevant authority,” Pegatron stated.
According to research firm Counterpoint, Pegatron currently accounts for 10% of Apple’s iPhone production in India.
Apple Inc has made a significant investment in India since beginning iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 via Wistron and later Foxconn, in line with the Indian government’s push for local manufacturing.
Pegatron, which started iPhone assembly in India in September of last year, is also in discussions to establish a second contract facility for Apple near the existing one in Tamil Nadu.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Praveen Paramasivam, Munsif Vengattil, Aditi Shah and Sarah Wu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
