Extends safety concerns about company's plants

Another fire has hit a Foxconn factory, this time in China's Shandong province, reports say. There are no accounts of injuries, and Foxconn reports that the fire has already been extinguished. The manufacturer suggests that the fire was probably caused by abandoned pipelines left on top of the building.

Because assembly lines are said to have been undamaged, production is expected to continue as usual. Foxconn's Shandong plants produce a variety of electronics, including phones, TVs, game consoles and notebooks. Some smartphone production has been relocated to other factories in recent times.

The incident is Foxconn's second major fire this year. The first hit a plant in Chengdu, killing three people, impacting iPad production and reducing Foxconn's May revenues.

News has also come of a trainee allegedly falling to her death at a Zhengzhou plant dormitory. Whether or not the fall was genuinely accidental is uncertain, since Foxconn has tried to downplay a recurring problem with suicides, sometimes linked to sweatshop-like working conditions and low pay. At the company's Shenzhen plant -- where many Apple products are assembled -- nets were installed to deter jumpers.

[Image via weibo.com]

By Electronista Staff