A massive fire broke out At Apple’s vendor Foxlink’s plant based in Tirupati District in Andhra Pradesh on Monday causing damage of nearly $12 million with no casualties.
The fire broke out at Foxlink’s manufacturing plant that produces cables for iPhones. Fortunately, there were no casualties after 400 employees were evacuated on an immediate basis. For now, the plant has temporarily stopped production until further notice.
According to J Ramanaiah, a senior official at the Disaster Response and Fire Services Department (Tirupati), 505 of the machinery at the plant has been damaged and half the building has collapsed as well. It is estimated that the damage pulled off by the massive fire stands at $12 million or INR 1 billion.
Foxlink has been manufacturing connectors and cables for iPhones since late 2020. It even laid the foundation for another unit in the district. Tech juggernauts like Apple and Google have begun seeing India as their manufacturing hub with many having their plants in the country. Apple’s suppliers Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron have their manufacturing plants set up in India with an estimated 5-7% of the global iPhone units to be manufactured in the country.
Just a few days ago, Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, told the media at India’s G20 Presidency that they are currently using an approach called freight-shoring to make their supply chains resilient. They are actively pursuing opportunities with India which is a major and trusted trading partner and tech companies like Apple and Google have already set up their phone production units in the country as well.
As per Reuters, neither Foxlink nor Apple responded to their calls citing comments on the situation. As of now, production remains suspended at Foxlink’s Tirupati plant.
