Following a fire incident on Sunday night, Pegatron, a major Apple supplier, has temporarily suspended iPhone assembly operations at its facility near Chennai.
According to a report by Reuters, the Taiwanese company has cancelled the first two shifts for the day on Monday and has not yet communicated whether the third shift will proceed as scheduled.
There were no casualties or injuries due to the fire incident as it occurred during a holiday when the factory was not operational, as per the report.
Pegatron presently accounts for about 10% of Apple’s annualised iPhone production in India, according to research firm Counterpoint.
This comes at a time when iPhone maker Apple is reportedly planning to ramp up production in India by more than five times from the current levels to around $40 Bn.
Apple is manufacturing various iPhone models in India, including the latest iPhone 15. The Cupertino-based tech giant is also contemplating the production of AirPods starting next year. However, there are no signs indicating whether Apple will initiate the manufacturing of iPads or MacBooks in India.
Apple has surged ahead of Samsung in smartphone exports from India, accounting for 49% of the country’s 12 Mn smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2023 (Q2 2023).
The tech giant has been significantly expanding its production capacity in India in recent quarters through its contract manufacturers. Companies like Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron have made substantial investments in India to ramp up iPhone production and initiate manufacturing of other Apple devices within the country.
These three contract manufacturers have also benefited from the Indian government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphone manufacturing, which was introduced in 2021.
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