A massive fire broke out at Apple's local supplier in India, Foxlink's facility on Monday. The Foxlink assembly facility in the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh has stopped production and evacuated 400 of its employees after a massive fire, two local government officials were quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
Foxlink makes cables for iPhones and the damage due to the massive fire at the unit has been estimated to be of Rs 100 crore, but, there were no casualties. The production at the facility has been halted.
Around 50 per cent of the machinery at the manufacturing 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, the Reuters report added.
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.
Meanwhile, Apple is the only Big Tech company that has mostly avoided mass layoffs to date, but it has reportedly started laying off third-party contractors. As per a recent report by New York Post, citing people with direct knowledge, the iPhone maker has started to cut ties with hundreds of contractors quietly.
"Instead of waiting for contracts that are typically renewed every 12 to 15 months to expire, Apple is firing contractors outright," said the report, citing sources.
Apple did not comment on the report. According to the report, firing contractors is a move to cut costs. The iPhone maker hasn't disclosed the size of its contractor workforce, but reports suggest it numbers in the thousands.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had called layoffs at the company a "last resort kind of thing", adding that "You can never say never". Cook had told the Wall Street Journal that Apple is managing costs very tightly.