Apple Supplier Foxlink Said to Have Halted Production at an Indian Plant After Massive Fire

Apple supplier Foxlink has halted production at its assembly facility in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and evacuated 400 of its employees after a massive fire on Monday, two local government officials told Reuters.

Foxlink makes cables for iPhones. Roughly 50 percent of the machinery at the facility was damaged and half of the building collapsed, said J Ramanaiah, who leads the Disaster Response and Fire Services Department for Tirupati district in the state, where the incident occurred.

Management has estimated damage of Rs. 100 crore at the facility, he said, adding there were no casualties.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An official for Foxlink did not respond to calls.

Meanwhile, a few days back, the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that technology companies like Apple and Google have expanded their phone production in India, which has inspired more US companies to deepen ties in the technology sector with India. 

"I am eager to deepen out ties in the technology sector. The US is advancing an approach called "friendshoring" to bolster the resilience of our supply chains. We are doing this by strengthening integration with our many trusted trading partners-including India. We are seeing progress, as an example, technology companies like Apple and Google have expanded their phone production in India," Yellen said. 

She made the comments while speaking at the roundtable with US and Indian Tech Business Leaders in Bengaluru in a meeting under the India's G20 Presidency. 

In fact, Finland's Salcomp, a supplier to US tech group Apple, was also reportedly looking to more than double its workforce in India to nearly 25,000 over the next 2-3 years, a company executive said earlier this month.