China factory explosion unlikely to affect Apple supplies

Issues with Apple partners in China keep coming after Pegatron, a company that manufactures parts for its products, revealed that there was an explosion at a subsidiary in Shanghai on Sunday.

The company is reporting that there was “some damage” to machinery and a number of injuries to its staff, however it is thought that the incident will not affect production, or supplies to Apple, significantly, according to a Reuters report:

Pegatron said in a statement released early on Sunday that there was some damage to machinery but it can readjust the facility so the impact on its operations and revenues will not be big.

Earlier this year, a major explosion at a factory belonging to well known Apple partner Foxconn was thought to have affected the availability of the iPad 2 by as much as 30 percent.

Pegatron and other Apple manufacturers in China have been in the news for environmental concerns. The Chinese government cautioned the company after three of its facilities were found to be releasing harmful gases while two other factories were found to be polluting local water resources.

Last month, Apple sat down with a number of its manufacturers and partners in China to discuss environmental issues around its supply chain. The meeting was held in secret, but was heralded as an important step by some environmental organisations.

Apple frequently topped Greenpeace’s list of the ‘least green’ companies before it started taking a more active and public interest in improving its environmental policies, making it an important selling point of its products as a result. The company proudly boasts of several of them meeting ENERGY STAR requirements and being rated EPEAT Gold, and was ranked as the fourth greenest company by Greenpeace last week.

However, its troubles in China continue, with its notebook casing supplier Catcher Technology having been forced to shut down a manufacturing plant in the country last month over environmental concerns. None of these problems are affecting the company’s sales in the country, which is Apple’s “fastest growing major region by far”, according to CEO Tim Cook.