Massive fire at Apple supplier unit in Andhra Pradesh, production halted

New Delhi: Following a massive fire at its assembly facility in Andhra Pradesh, Apple supplier Foxlink has halted its production.

Two government officials in the area said a part of the building collapsed in the huge fire, Reuters reported.

Foxlink, set up in 2020 in the state, is a unit of Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co Ltd, which makes iPhone charges at its facility here.

The fire that had broken out in the afternoon damaged nearly 50 per cent of the company’s machinery, according to J Ramanaiah of the Fire Services Department for Tirupati district in the state.

The cause of the conflagration is not yet known and there is no information about its impact on  Apple either.

Apple did not reportedly respond to press enquiries for comment and nor Foxlink responded to calls, according to the report.

The Fire Services Department reportedly said the situation is under control now and added that there were no casualties.

Photos emerged from the site of the fire showed charred machinery inside plant just as firefighter were struggling to douse the conflagration.

"Management has conveyed to us that they estimate a loss of roughly 1 billion rupees ($12 million) from the incident," Reuters quoted an official as saying.

Foxlink is one of the supplier partners of Apple in India, where the Cupertino, California-based company began assembling phones in 2017.

This comes after Modi government’s push for local manufacturing through make in India initiative.

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