Work to resume at India iPhone plant after factory fire

MUMBAI, Oct 03 (AFP): An Indian factory producing iPhone components was resuming work on Thursday after a fire that halted production-the third blaze to disrupt Apple's local supply chain since the start of last year.

India has pitched itself as an emerging manufacturing hub for tech giants diversifying production outside of China to insulate themselves against geopolitical friction between Washington and Beijing.

Local industrial behemoth Tata Group's plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained weekend fire, is a key lynchpin of Apple's nascent supply chain in the country.

A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics said Thursday that the company would restart work in "many areas of the facility today".

"We've been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire," they added.

The conglomerate did not say when the facility would resume full production or whether the fire would result in shipment delays.

Local analysts had initially projected a delay in production of older iPhone models.

The fire is the latest incident to affect Apple's supply chain in India, with two other blazes temporarily halting production at factories owned by Taiwanese suppliers Pegatron and Foxlink last year.