On Monday, fire broke out at an Indian factory of Foxlink, which is a Taiwanese supplier of iPhone charging cables, and disrupted the production and manufacturing at its facility. The factory is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in Chittoor district. Foxlink now says that it is working hard to resume production at its plant.
Foxlink stated that it is currently investigating the cause of the fire and working with customers to "discuss solutions for the production capacity affected before resuming work". However, the site is still blocked off by the fire department and four production lines are damaged. J Ramanaiah, who leads the Fire Services Department of the region, said that except for fire extinguishers, safety systems such as smoke detectors, sprinklers and fire hydrants were faulty at the site which led to a delay in containing the fire.
According to an earlier report by Reuters, some Apple representatives visited the facility for meetings on Tuesday. In India, Foxlink operates a total of 10 assembly lines that are located at two separate facilities at the plant in Andhra. Out of the 10, four were completely destroyed because of the fire. The company plans to resume production at the six remaining assembly lines by the end of this week.
Apple is bullish on India for allowing it to cater to its manufacturing needs. The iPhone maker first started assembling in the country back in 2017 with old models but has recently also started assembling the latest launches of the year. Apple is looking to reduce its dependency on China and is mitigating its supply chain risks by diversifying its manufacturers.
Source: Reuters
