The 2011 Chengdu Foxconn explosion occurred on May 13, 2011 in

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

, Sichuan province, People's Republic of China.

Location

The Foxconn factory (鸿富锦成都厂) where the incident took place is located at

Pi County Pidu District formerly known as Pi County or Pixian is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, Southwest China. It was approved from the former Pi County by the State Council on Novembe ...

Hongguang (红光镇) with a total of about 52 production lines.Singtao daily May 21, 2011. Page A1, A3. In 2010 chairman Terry Gou referred to this area as the "Chengdu speed"(成都速度), a new development hub that Foxconn would centralise and turn Chengdu into the PRC's number one investment destination within five years.

Explosion

The explosive fire broke out at around 7:30pm and was quickly controlled by 10:00pm. At the time of the incident there were at least a couple hundred workers at the factory. After the explosion, more than 10

fire trucks A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an ...

and a large number of police showed up on the scene. The explosion occurred at the north factory A5 zone iPad 2 assembly line. A total of 3 people were killed with 15 injured.

Singtao The ''Sing Tao Daily'' () (also known as ''Sing Tao Jih Pao'') is Hong Kong's oldest and second-largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation, of which Kwok Ying-shing () is chairman. Its English language sister p ...

reported the explosion cause is related to either a furnace explosion or magnesium power related. The New York Times reported the root cause as a buildup of combustible aluminum dust. Numerous sources have said the explosion impact affected and cracked the factory building's 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor walls. However,

Hon Hai Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...

spokesman Edmund Ding (丁祈安) said the explosion was only confined to a single workshop on one floor.

Effects

The factory is an aluminum casing finishing (polishing) plant, and provides services for Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung among others, including work on the iPad line. Reports from the period following the explosions indicated that there would be expected slowdowns in production of the iPad 2 and many other devices. Foxconn denied that there would be any supply chain impact. The events caused Apple to have worker welfare concerns, and it began corporate and vendor governance changes to improve conditions at Chinese factories.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chengdu Foxconn explosion incident Foxconn Explosions in 2011 Chengdu Foxconn explosion incident Chengdu Foxconn explosion incident