Apple supplier Foxconn plant closed in India after protests this week – sources told Reuters

Sudarshan by Varadhan and Rupam Jainen

CHENNAI, India (Reuters) – Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 The Foxconn supplier’s plant near Chennai in southern India will be closed this week after protests over a food poisoning incident, three government sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The factory appeared empty on Tuesday, including some cars outside including a police vehicle. No staff were seen at the site, there were two guards and several other security officers.

Foxconn and Apple were not available for comment.

Interruption Apple, like other consumer product companies, is facing supply chain bottlenecks that have hit production. In October, the company warned that the impact of these supply chain problems would worsen during the holiday quarter.

“The plant is closed from Saturday and will be closed until next Sunday,” said a senior official in the industrial safety and health department of Tamil Nadu, the capital of Chennai. Two other senior state officials confirmed the suspension of the factory’s activities.

All three were unable to identify themselves because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

Police in India released dozens of people arrested on Monday for blocking a key highway after food poisoning at a factory that took 150 workers to a hospital last week.

The plant makes iPhone 12 models. Local media reported on Tuesday, citing sources, that Apple has recently begun testing its flagship iPhone 13 at the factory.

The decision to suspend the plant is up to management, a police officer in the Kancheepuram Police Superintendent’s Office in a Tamil Nadu district told Reuters.

Factory workers who have been complaining about food poisoning and other problems in recent months have been asked to register their problems with the state labor ministry, the official said.

PRODUCTION IMPACT

“Apple’s impact is expected to be low as the period is weak … at least until February,” said Navkendar Singh, India’s director of market research at IDC.

“In the first half of 2022, we expect the growth in sales needed to ease the problems of new product marketing and supply chain.”

The factory also makes Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 Fire TV sticks and Xiaomi (OTC 🙂 some devices.

The unrest at Foxconn in one year is the second largest in India by an Apple supplier factory.

In December 2020, thousands of workers at a Wistron Corp-owned plant destroyed equipment and vehicles for non-payment of wages, causing $ 60 million in damage.

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, has made a big commitment to India since it began assembling the iPhone in the country in 2017.

Foxconn, Wistron and another supplier, Pegatron, have committed around $ 900 million to make iPhones in India over five years.

Apple also plans to bring its iPad tablet assembly to India, a country that includes Mexico and Vietnam, among the countries that are important in hiring manufacturers to supply American brands, while trying to reduce dependence on China amid Sino-US tensions.

Most Indian Foxconn employees are women.

(This story was rewritten to change the spelling until paragraph 13)