Apple supplier Pegatron has ordered its factory workers not to report to work on Tuesday, halting assembly of iPhone models for a second day in a row at the factory in southern India where a fire broke out on Sunday, three sources told Reuters.
The workers were not given a reason for the directive, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The Taiwanese company had canceled all services at its factory near the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state on Monday following the fire incident, two sources said.
Pegatron earlier told Reuters in a statement on Monday that there “was a spark incident” at the factory and that it is currently under control. The incident “does not have a significant financial or operational impact” on the company, it added.
While the factory has a production capacity of about 26,000 iPhone models per day, it has been assembling about 8,000 to 12,000 iPhone models per day in recent months, an industry source said.
Pegatron declined to comment on the production estimate.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
A local emergency department official said multiple fire tenders from different stations had to be deployed to douse the blaze, which took nearly five hours.
“There were no injuries, no casualties, nor damage to other property. The cause of (the) accident is currently under investigation by (the) relevant authority,” Pegatron said.
A police official told Reuters that an investigation was underway with the fire brigade and described it as a minor incident.
Local media reported late Monday that the fire led to black smoke blanketing the nearby area, with footage showing security guards trying to clear a crowd that had gathered at the entrance to the facility.
According to research firm Counterpoint, Pegatron is responsible for 10 percent of Apple’s iPhone production in India. The company estimates that Apple will sell more than nine million iPhone models in India this year.
Apple has bet big on India since it began iPhone assembly in the country through Wistron and later Foxconn in 2017, as the Indian government pushed for local production.
Pegatron, which started iPhone assembly in India in September last year, is also in talks to open a second Indian contract factory for Apple, near the existing one in Tamil Nadu.
The incident is the latest problem to hit one of Apple’s 14 suppliers in India.
Production at a Foxconn factory was hit by food poisoning among workers in 2021, while a Wistron factory in India was hit by worker unrest in 2020 over non-payment of wages. In February, a fire at a southern Indian facility of Foxlink forced production of iPhone charging cables to halt.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
