Apple supplier Foxconn's revenue hits record high

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and major iPhone assembler for Apple, said yesterday that its revenue in January jumped 48.2 percent year-on-year to a record high of T$660.4 billion (HK$173.3 billion), as it shook off Covid disruptions in China.

Operations last month returned to normal and shipments increased at its Zhengzhou campus in China, a center for iPhone production, the company said in a statement.

Compared to the previous month, revenue was up 4.93 percent with smart consumer electronics products, which include smartphones, and computing products showing strong double-digit growth, it said.

Production of iPhones faced disruption ahead of Christmas and January's Lunar New Year holidays, after curbs to control Covid-19 prompted thousands of workers to leave Foxconn's factory lines in Zhengzhou.

Analysts say Foxconn assembles around 70 percent of iPhones, and the Zhengzhou plant produces the majority of its premium models including the iPhone 14 Pro.

They expect first-quarter revenue to grow by around 4 percent year-on-year, according to Refinitiv.

Apple has forecast its revenue would fall for a second quarter in a row but that iPhone sales were likely to improve as production had returned to normal in China after the Covid-related shutdowns.

This came as the Kyodo News reported that Japan's government will begin restricting exports of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China in spring after it amends a foreign exchange law to allow the change. The new regulation will not mention China specifically in a bid to reduce the risk of retaliation by Beijing, the report said, without saying where it obtained the information.

Japan and the Netherlands have agreed to join the United States in halting shipments of semiconductor manufacturing equipment produced by the likes of Nikon and ASML in a bid to stop China from developing advanced chips that could be used to enhance its military power, sources have said.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US is considering new sanctions on Chinese surveillance companies over sales to Iran's security forces.

US authorities are in advanced discussions on the sanctions and have zeroed in on Tiandy Technologies, an electrical equipment manufacturer based out of Tianjin whose products have been sold to units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the report added.