Apple supplier ordered to close China plant

A Taiwanese supplier of Apple Inc. has been ordered to shut down part of its plant in Suzhou province in China due to environmental issues, a financial news site reported. The Financial Times said Taiwan’s Catcher Technology issued an emergency announcement Sunday night the order stemmed from complaints of foul odors from the plant. It quoted Catcher as saying the shutdown will impact October sales by a fifth, assuming plant improvement works are completed and approved by regulators by the end of the month. Catcher is one of the world’s biggest makers of metal casings for notebook PCs, including Apple's MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, the report said. It added Catcher's casings will also be used for Acer’s new ultrabooks and notebooks by Dell, Lenovo and Sony. The Financial Times said Catcher realized sales of T$21.8 billion ($725 million) in 2010, with analysts expecting an increase to T$37.1 billion this year. But its stock fell by nearly the daily limit of seven percent on Monday. “Even assuming its competition can somehow make up for the supply shortfall with additional output while Catcher’s production is disrupted, we believe the news is generally bad for the overall [PC] sector," Financial Times quoted Jenny Lai, head of Taiwan research at HSBC, as saying. Environmental record The Financial Times said this was not the first time that the technology supply chain’s environmental record, particularly in China, came under attack. Last August, Chinese environmental groups published an extensive report accusing Apple suppliers in China of systemic pollution. Apple’s own 2010 audit found that 80 facilities were not storing or handling hazardous chemicals properly. The report said Catcher was not named in the August report or in Apple’s 2010 audit, adding Catcher said its processes and materials were developed over decades and have no health impact. — TJD, GMA News