Explosion at Foxconn plant is likely to impact iPad 2 supply

An explosion at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu China which resulted in three deaths and 15 injured is likely to put Apple’s iPad 2 supply further in constraint.

The explosion and fire at the plant, which a DigiTimes report said accounts for around 25-30 per cent of Apple’s iPad 2 production volume, resulted in the closure of the planet while Foxconn cooperates with a police investigation.

DigiTimes sources said that Foxconn intended to ramp up production at the Chengdu factory to three to four million iPad 2s in the second quarter, up from around 600,000 in the first. The growth of shipment capability at Chengdu was expected to climb much more quickly than the contract manufacturer’s main Shenzhen site.

Little is known about the explosion or if it was connected to pressure to rapidly expand production capacity amid continued constraint of iPad 2 supply.