India: Massive fire breaks out at Apple supplier factory; production halted at assembly facility

Apple supplier Foxlink has halted production at its assembly facility in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after a massive fire led part of the building to collapse on Monday, two local government officials told Reuters.

Foxlink, a unit of Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co Ltd, makes cables for iPhone chargers. It set up a factory in Andhra in 2020.

The fire broke out in the afternoon and damaged roughly 50% of the machinery at the factory, said J Ramanaiah, who leads the Fire Services Department for Tirupati district in the state.

The business impact on Apple was not immediately clear and the root cause of the incident was unknown. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An official for Foxlink did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The fire is now under control and there were no casualties, said Ramanaiah. He showed Reuters photos and videos of the factory blaze with charred machinery inside the plant and groups of fire fighters trying to douse the fire. The videos and photos showed huge plumes of smoke rising from the plant.

"Management has conveyed to us that they estimate a loss of roughly 1 billion rupees ($12 million) from the incident," Ramanaiah said.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has bet big on India since it began assembling iPhones in the country in 2017 via Wistron and later with Foxconn, in line with the Indian government's push for local manufacturing.

It has several other supplier partners in India, with Foxlink being one of them.

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