Massive damage from a fire at the southern Indian Tata Group facility that makes Apple iPhone components might impede production ahead of a spike in sales over the holiday season, according to a source and an industry observer.
This would force the U.S. firm’s suppliers to arrange for crucial parts to be shipped from China or another location.
The weekend fire at Tata’s Hosur facility in Tamil Nadu, the only Indian provider of iPhone back panel and certain other parts for the nation’s contract maker Foxconn as well as its own iPhone assembly at a different location, has put an end to production.
During the Indian festive season, which spans from late October to early November, Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research told Reuters it projects local sales of 1.5 million units of the iPhone 14 and 15 models.
Because of the fire, Apple is only able to meet up to 15% of that demand.
India’s manufacture of older iPhone models would be affected by 10% to 15%. Apple might counteract that effect by rerouting more export inventory towards India and importing more components, according to Neil Shah, a co-founder of Counterpoint, a company that has been tracking Apple’s international exports for years.
In addition to local sales, widely accessible customs data indicates that, in the year ending August 31, Tata, one of the largest conglomerates in India, shipped iPhones worth over $250 million to the United States, the Netherlands, and some regions of China.
According to Counterpoint, rear panels are normally kept in stock by Apple suppliers for three to four weeks. However, an industry insider with firsthand knowledge of the situation believed that Apple would not see an immediate impact since its stock would likely last for eight weeks.
