Explosion at Apple Supplier’s Plant May Affect iPad 3 Shipments

One of Apple’s overseas suppliers is experiencing technical problems at its iPad production lines, and it may just affect the iPad 3 launch, according to reports.

Several news outlets in China are reporting that Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin has confirmed an explosion at a plant owned by Riteng Computer Accessory Co. in Shanghai's Songjiang industrial park.

Pegatron said the plant had not started operations yet, and that part of the facility was still under pre-operation inspection, while another sector was indeed running trial production of iPad 2 aluminum enclosures.

The explosion occurred at about 3:40 p.m on December 17 at a workshop on the fourth floor of the factory, according to the Shanghai city government.

The blast had did not caused a fire, but almost half of the 57 injured workers needed to be hospitalized, according to reports.

In a separate statement provided to the media this past weekend, Pegatron acknowledged that there some damage to the machines used to manufacture iPad parts, but that it could make adjustments to reduce the handicap.

China's Yi Cai Daily said that if the safety issue isn’t addressed immediately, Apple's next quarter will see supply chain constraints.

This is not the first time an iPad production line is affected by an explosion.

In May this year, a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China, exploded killing three and injuring another fifteen.

The polishing workshop at the Chengdu factory, which was confirmed as one of the iPad 2 production lines, had experienced an explosion in a duct carrying combustible aluminum dust.