Forbes
Date: February 29, 2016
By: Jonathan Webb

Elementum, a supply chain risk company, believes that the iPhone 7 supply

(TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

chain experienced a near miss earlier this month. On Feb. 6, an earthquake at 6.4 on the Richter Scale shook an electronics hub in Southern Taiwan, which lies at the heart of Apple AAPL -0.24%’s supply chain. A bigger tremor, on a different day, could have had the iPhone 7 operation in tatters.

Facilities for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), Apple’s sole supplier for the A10 processor integral to its forthcoming iPhone 7, were impacted. Fortunately stocks of delicate wafers, which are central to semiconductor production, survived relatively unscathed and only 1% of deliveries were expected to be disrupted. But some orders face delays of 10 – 50 days. The sensitive machinery to produce them however escaped undamaged.     [FULL  STORY]