Fire in India plant has little impact on operations: Pegatron

New Delhi/Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Taiwan-based contract electronics maker Pegatron Corp. said on Monday that a fire that broke out a day earlier in a plant in Chennai, the capital city of the Indian southern state of Tamil Nadu, has had little impact on the company's operations.

In a statement, Pegatron, one of the iPhone assemblers for Apple Inc., said a small-sized power panelboard at the factory caught fire Sunday night but that the situation was soon under control.

Pegatron said no casualties or damage to assets were reported and that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

The Pegatron plant is located in the Mahindra World City, an industrial park in Chennai.

According to a report by Thanthi TV, a Chennai-based television channel, the plant produces the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and the newest iPhone 15 and iPhone Pro models.

Reuters reported that the Pegatron plant halted production for a second day on Tuesday and noted that the day the fire broke out was a holiday so the facility was not operational.

Citing an industrial source, Reuters said although the Chennai facility has a production capacity of about 26,000 iPhones a day, the plant has been assembling about 8,000-12,000 iPhones per day in recent months.

Reuters, citing research firm Counterpoint, added that Pegatron currently accounts for about 10 percent of India's iPhone production and that Apple is expected to sell more than 9 million iPhones in the country this year.

According to Reuters, Pegatron started to assemble iPhones in India in September 2022 and has been engaged in talks to set up a second Apple production site near the existing Chennai location.

Reuters added that Apple has made significant investments in India since 2017 through setting up iPhone assembly facilities, in line with the Indian government's efforts in promoting local manufacturing.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn, and Wistron Corp. are two other Taiwanese companies producing iPhones for Apple in India.