A weekend explosion at a Shanghai factory run by Apple supplier Pegatron injured 61 workers, 23 of whom were hospitalized according to the Taiwan-based components maker. An explosion in May at another factory operated by Apple's main parts supplier, Foxconn, killed three workers.
Apple and its Taiwan-based suppliers of parts for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices have come under fire from labor advocacy groups for allegedly unsafe and exploitative working conditions at several mainland China-based factories in recent years. In addition to several explosions and other worker safety incidents in the last 15 months, a string of worker suicides at plants run by Foxconn has raised serious questions about how Apple's partners treat their employees.
The most recent explosion occurred at a plant in Shanghai's Songjiang industrial park that is operated by Pegatron subsidiary Riteng Computer Accessory Co., according to Reuters. Chinese state television reported the explosion in the video below.
The Riteng factory had not actually been officially opened when the explosion tore through it over the weekend, according to a Pegatron executive quoted by the news agency.
"The factory has not started operations yet," said Charles Lin, Pegatron's chief financial officer. "Part of the facility is still under pre-operation inspection and part is running trial production."
The plant was reportedly set to begin making back panels for Apple's iPad 2, according to China's Yi Cai Daily newspaper, though neither Pegatron nor Apple would confirm that. An analyst quoted by Reuters opined that the explosion would only cause "relatively minor" disruption to Apple's supply chain, unlike the explosion at Foxconn's Chengdu, which involved a more important Apple supplier.
"It's a setback but it's relatively minor," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu told Reuters. "The Foxconn explosion was a much bigger deal but still they were able to work around it fairly quickly."