An explosion at a Shanghai supplier to Apple Inc injured 61 workers after aluminum dust produced by polishing cases for iPads ignited, China Labor Watch said.
The cause of the blast on Saturday at Ri Teng Computer Accessory (Shanghai) Co (日騰電腦配件), owned by Taipei-based Pegatron Corp (和碩), was similar to that of an accident at a Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) facility in May, according to an e-mailed statement from China Labor Watch.
Pegatron chief financial officer Charles Lin (林秋炭) did not immediately return calls to his office seeking comment.
Foxconn, the biggest contract manufacturer for Apple, said in May “combustible dust” probably caused the May 20 accident at its factory in Chengdu, when three workers died and 15 were injured.
Pegatron said on Sunday that some employees injured in the explosion the previous day were hospitalized, without providing details about the accident.
“We are working closely with Pegatron to understand the cause of this accident,” Carolyn Wu, a spokesperson for Apple in China, said by telephone yesterday.
“Our hearts go out to the people who were hurt in Songjiang,” she said, declining to elaborate.
Local authorities in the Songjiang area have started investigating the accident at Ri Teng, the Shanghai city government said in a posting on the Sina Weibo microblogging service on Saturday.
Pegatron shares fell 1 percent to close at NT$31.30 in Taipei trading yesterday, compared with a 0.4 percent gain on the benchmark TAIEX.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it expects any impact of new tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump to hit the company less than its rivals, citing its global manufacturing footprint. Young Liu (劉揚偉), chairman of the contract manufacturer and key Apple Inc supplier, told reporters after a forum in Taipei that it saw the primary impact of any fresh tariffs falling on its clients because its business model is based on contract manufacturing. “Clients may decide to shift production locations, but looking at Foxconn’s global footprint, we are ahead. As a result, the impact on us is likely smaller compared to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
RSS