Apple Supplier Foxlink Unlikely To Restart Full Operation In India For Next Two Months: Report

Foxlink assembly facility in Andhra Pradesh has stopped production and evacuated 400 of its employees after a massive fire on Monday

Foxlink makes cables for iPhones and the damage caused due to the fire at the unit has been estimated at be Rs 100 crore.

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Foxlink's factory, Apple's local supplier in India is unlikely to resume full operations for next two months after a fire incident on Monday, reported by news agency Reuters. Foxlink assembly facility in Andhra Pradesh has stopped production and evacuated 400 of its employees after a massive fire. 

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told the agency 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.

According to the report, the incident has raised concerns about supply chain disruptions for the iPhone maker. 

Foxlink makes cables for iPhones and the damage caused due to the massive fire at the unit has been estimated to be Rs 100 crore, the report said. 

Even though the other six assembly lines were unharmed by the fire event, they cannot be used since the IT servers were damaged, so they will start up again later this week, the report further added.  A second source told the news agency 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."

In an earlier report, J Ramanaiah, who leads the Disaster Response and Fire Services Department for Tirupati district in the state told Reuters that around 50 per cent of the machinery at the manufacturing facility was damaged and half of the building collapsed. 

This comes days after the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that technology giants such as 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.