Picture: Cult of Mac
Apple’s iPhone manufacturing in India hit a significant hurdle following a hearth at a Tata Electronics plant. The fireplace, which occurred over the weekend, will seemingly have a 10-15% affect on the manufacturing of older iPhones.
Extra importantly, Apple will fall again on its suppliers in China to satisfy the element scarcity.
iPhone manufacturing in India to take a significant hit as a result of Tata plant hearth
Earlier than COVID, Apple relied closely on China to fabricate its units. Nonetheless, as a result of supply-chain disruption triggered throughout the pandemic, the corporate accelerated its plans to make India a secondary manufacturing hub.
The Tata plant at Hosur, Tamil Nadu, made iPhone again panels and different parts. It solely equipped Foxconn and its personal iPhone meeting manufacturing unit with these things. The fireplace at Tata’s plant will reportedly pressure Apple to fall again on China for sourcing these parts.
The incident occurred forward of the essential festive season in India, the place iPhones are usually in excessive demand.
Counterpoint Analysis’s co-founder Neil Shah informed Reuters that the indefinite manufacturing unit shutdown may have a “10-15% impact on production of older iPhone models from India. Apple could offset that impact by importing more components, and by re-routing more export inventory towards India.”
Apple might ask its Chinese language suppliers to step up
The identical report, citing a supply, claims Apple has about eight weeks’ inventory of the parts. This may guarantee there’s no fast affect on manufacturing. Nonetheless, if the manufacturing unit doesn’t return on-line in a month or so, Apple will supposedly ask its suppliers in China to arrange one other manufacturing line there.
Indian authorities will examine the hearth, with early reviews suggesting the hearth triggered intensive harm to the plant.
This isn’t the primary time that one in every of Apple’s provider factories in India caught hearth. In 2023, a Pegatron manufacturing unit within the nation making iPhone parts caught hearth after a employee apparently failed to show off a swap on the finish of the day, inflicting a brief circuit.