Recently, a fire broke out at the Tata Group’s plant where components for the iPhone were manufactured. This may cause significant damage to the production of smartphones, and Apple will have to organize the supply of important parts from China or other countries. This was reported by Reuters.

The Tata plant affected by the fire is the only Indian supplier of iPhone back panels and some other parts. These parts were used to supply Foxconn’s factories in India, and at the same time to assemble iPhones at another Tata-owned plant.

This fire is particularly critical because it occurred on the eve of the festival in India, which runs from late October to early November. Counterpoint Research noted that about 1.5 million iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 will be sold during this period. However, it is expected that due to the fire, Apple will not be able to meet about 15% of the demand.

Counterpoint notes that Apple’s suppliers generally have three to four weeks of back panels in storage, and other sources claim that Apple has parts in stock for about eight weeks, so the company will not feel the effects of the fire immediately. But if production continues to be suspended, the American company will be forced to set up new assembly lines, particularly in China.

In recent years, Apple has been trying to diversify its operations outside of China, in particular through factories in other countries, including India. However, last year, due to fires in India at Foxlink and Pegatron factories, production was forced to be temporarily suspended. In addition, Wistron and Foxconn’s contractors have been suffering from labor conflicts in recent years.

Despite all the problems Apple has in India, Tata is one of the company’s newest suppliers in the country. According to forecasts, it will provide about 20-25% of global iPhone shipments in 2024. This is almost twice as much as the 12-14% that the company provided in 2023.