Apple Supplier Foxlink Stops Production After Massive Fire
- VIVA/B.S.Putra
VIVA – Apple supplier Foxlink has stopped production at its assembly facility in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and evacuated 400 of its employees after a massive fire on Monday, two local government officials said.
Foxlink is a unit of Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co Ltd, making cables for iPhone chargers. The company set up a factory in Andhra in 2020. The massive fire broke out in the afternoon and damaged about 50 percent of the machinery at the factory, said Heads of the Fire Department for Tirupati district in the state, J Ramanaiah.
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.
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The fire has been under control and there were no casualties. Rahmanaia showed photos and videos of the factory blue with charred machinery inside the plant and groups of firefighters trying to douse the fire. The videos and photos showed huge plumes of smoke rising from the factory.
"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.
They have several other supplier partners in India, with Foxlink being one of them. Though Apple has recently increased its production capacity in India despite facing many challenges there.
As Apple wants to reduce its dependence on China, the company has been investing more in its suppliers located in other countries including India, Taiwan, and even Brazil.
Apple is for the first time assembling all the new iPhone 14 models in India. The Tim Cook-led company is also slowly bringing iPad and AirPods parts production to the country.
But a recent report has revealed that Apple is not happy with the quality of products being assembled in India. Sources have revealed that 50 percent of iPhone cases made there have been rejected by Apple, whereas in China, the figure is closer to 0 percent.
There is still optimism that Indian companies will adapt to Apple's demands in the future, but replacing China as its main supplier is no easy task.
