Massive Fire Shuts Down iPhone Charging Cable Production Facility
A Foxlink facility producing iPhone cables for Apple in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has been forced to halt production due to a "massive fire" at the facility today.
As Reuters reports(Opens in a new window), this factory has been producing the cables used with iPhone chargers since 2020, but a fire earlier today led to part of the building collapsing and around 50% of the machinery inside suffering damage. For now, it remains unclear how the fire started, but it's under control and there are no casualties thanks to efforts of the Fire Services Department for Tirupati district in the state.
The impact on Apple's supply chain is currently unknown. For Foxlink, which is a subsidiary of Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co Ltd., the fire is thought to have caused around $12 million worth of damage and the extensive machinery damage suggests the repair work is going to take quite some time.
Apple no longer ships iPhones with a charger in the box, but every Apple smartphone includes a USB Type-C to Lightning cable. That will soon change as Apple is expected to make the switch to a USB-C port on the iPhone 15 later this year, meaning a USB Type-C to Type-C charging cable will be required instead.
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