By Praveen Paramasivam and Munsif Vengattil
CHITTOOR, India (Reuters) – Apple supplier Foxlink’s factory in southern India is unlikely to resume full operations for two months after a fire incident, raising concerns of supply chain disruptions for the iPhone maker, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Tuesday.
The facility in India’s Andhra Pradesh state, where Foxlink makes charging cables for iPhones, was engulfed in a massive fire on Monday that led part of the building to collapse to the ground. There were no casualties.
A source with direct knowledge said that Foxlink operates a total of 10 assembly lines in two separate facilities at the plant in Andhra, of which four were completely damaged and unlikely to resume operations for two months.
The remaining six assembly lines will resume operations later this week as even though they were unaffected by the fire incident, they cannot be operated due to damage to IT servers.
A second source familiar with the developments said that Foxlink was a key supplier for Apple in India, and “there could be potential supply chain disruptions for iPhones made in India or shipped from India.”
Apple and Foxlink did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The root cause of the incident is still being investigated, the first source added.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi, and Praveen Paramasivam in Tirupati, Editing by Louise Heavens)
