Three contract workers died after inhaling suspected toxic gas at a factory supplying components for Apple.

The US iPhone Company is effectively Tata’s only phone customer in southern India.

No other handset brand has been confirmed as a client.

The Economic Times reported Tata was in talks with Xiaomi and Oppo to also contract manufacture their smartphones at the same plant.

Earlier this year an Indian pollution regulator alleged wastewater discharged from a Tata components factory for Apple’s iPhone has contaminated the groundwater for nearby farms and warned of a forced shutdown unless Tata gives a satisfactory explanation.

India’s Tata Electronics is central to Apple’s push to diversify iPhone production beyond China and is the second-biggest supplier to Apple in South Asia after Taiwan’s Foxconn.

The Tata plant where the workers died is in Hosur in southern Tamil Nadu state and makes back panels and other components for iPhones.

At the time the workers were inspecting an external nano-filtration tank when they allegedly inhaled toxic gas, a district official told Reuters.

Tamil Nadu authorities are investigating the incident, while Tata Electronics and Apple will also conduct probes.

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There has been no impact on production as the facility was closed for the Hindu festival of Deepavali.

Tata makes iPhone enclosures, the metal casings.

It was disrupted by a fire in September 2024 but returned to pre-fire output, and Tata planned to double capacity in a Phase II expansion.

It is also reportedly supplying casings for the iPhone 17 series.

iPhone assembly began production in April 2025 with one line manufacturing older iPhone models.

Sources said it would produce the iPhone 16 and 16e at roughly 300–500 units per hour.

Digitimes puts its southern India workforce at about 75,000.