14 DAY TRIAL // “Our hearts go out to the people who were hurt in Songjiang. We are working closely with Pegatron to understand the cause of this accident,” said Carolyn Wu, a spokeswoman for Apple in China, following the incident reported a couple of days ago at a Pegatron factory.
Pegatron, an Apple partner helping out with the assembly of iPads, recently opened a new factory to accommodate Apple’s orders for iPad 2 enclosures.
A New York-based group called China Labor reportedly investigated the matter and concluded that the explosion was caused by aluminum dust catching fire in the polishing process for the iPad 2 cases.
As avid Softpedia readers will remember, a similar blast occurred in Chengdu, China, in May, at a Foxconn factory. Foxconn is also one of Apple’s assembly partners.
Aside from providing the aforementioned statement, Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu would not comment further. Apple is known to be tight-lipped when it comes to its Asian suppliers.
Pegatron, for their part, confirmed in a statement that the blast indeed occurred in dust collection equipment. The company instructed its staff not to make any further comments.
According to Chinese papers reporting on the tragic accident, it was Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin who initially confirmed an explosion at a plant owned by Riteng Computer Accessory Co. in Shanghai's Songjiang industrial park.
The plant had not started operations yet, but one sector was running trial production of iPad 2 aluminum enclosures. Part of the facility was (and still is) under pre-operation inspection.
Reports were mixed regarding the total number of injured workers, but most accounts indicate there were 61 people affected by the blast, of which 23 were hospitalized. Chinese news agencies said none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.