2317.TW - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
Chart Events
Performance Outlook
- Short Term2W - 6W
- Mid Term6W - 9M
- Long Term9M+
| Previous Close | 75.30 |
| Open | 75.70 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 74.80 - 75.90 |
| 52 Week Range | 65.70 - 93.40 |
| Volume | 26,065,000 |
| Avg. Volume | 43,393,806 |
| Market Cap | 1.044T |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 0.68 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 10.76 |
| EPS (TTM) | 6.99 |
| Earnings Date | Aug 11, 2020 - Aug 18, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 4.00 (5.31%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | Jul 25, 2019 |
| 1y Target Est | 88.95 |
Fair Value
Related Research
- TechCrunch
US-China trade enters new era after overnight Huawei, Foxconn and TSMC announcements
There has been a steady drumbeat of news on the U.S.-China trade front since the start of the Trump administration. President Trump has made decoupling from China’s economy on on-again, off-again proposition. There was the trade conflict with weekly changes in American tariff policy, the threats against ZTE and Huawei, the responses from China against Qualcomm and NXP and the launch of new restrictions on China investment in U.S. startups and telecom infrastructure.
- Motley Fool
Profits at iPhone Supplier Foxconn Crumble 90% in Q1
The rest of the year is looking murky, too, as Apple pushes back its flagship product's release date.
- Reuters
Taiwan's TSMC keeps eye on China with $12 billion U.S. plant
In a race to position itself in the latest trade battle between the United States and China, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd made it just under the wire. The world's biggest contract chipmaker unveiled plans for a $12 billion plant in Arizona on Friday just hours before Washington outlined a proposal to amend tech export rules that could restrict TSMC's sales to China's Huawei. A U.S. Commerce Department official said TSMC's decision to locate the plant in the United States generated "good will" at the department, the drafter of the law that would require TSMC and others to get U.S. licences to sell chips to Huawei.
- Bloomberg
Foxconn Forecast Portends More Bad News for Apple
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Foxconn Technology Group just painted a bleak picture for the June quarter, and the implications for its largest client aren’t good.While overall revenue at Foxconn’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will drop a moderate “single digit” percent, that decline is softened by pandemic-driven demand for enterprise and computing products.Hon Hai’s consumer products division, which includes the millions of iPhones it churns out for Apple Inc. each quarter, will fall at least 15% from a year earlier, the Taipei-based company told investors late Friday. That’s even worse than the 14% drop experienced in the March quarter. By comparison, Apple posted a 7.2% drop in revenue from iPhones and iPads combined.While Apple is Hon Hai’s largest customer, at around half of revenue, it’s not the only one. Other consumer products manufactured by the Taiwanese company include game consoles and accessories.Where Foxconn can take solace is in the booming demand for servers, PCs, networking equipment, data centers and other enterprise products. Its computing division will post revenue growth of at least 15% this quarter, which is nice but accounts for only 21% of revenue. Enterprise sales will climb more than 10% but make up only 24% of total revenue.For years, Foxconn enjoyed the benefits of riding the iPhone wave, the most successful technology product of this generation. Now its dependence on consumer electronics, at 50% of sales, is proving to be its greatest weakness. “The last part of March and the first part of April were very depressed, and then we’ve seen a pickup relative to that period of time in the second half of April,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg News two weeks ago. The company this month declined to provide a forecast for the first time in at least a decade.Foxconn’s outlook provides a glimpse into a future that Apple dare not predict. And it’s not a pretty sight.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
IPhone Maker Foxconn’s Profit Gutted by Smartphone Slump
(Bloomberg) -- Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. forecast another revenue decline after profit plunged by the most on record in the March quarter, when the novel coronavirus froze much of its China production and walloped global smartphone demand.Apple Inc.’s most important manufacturing partner recorded an 89% decline in net income to NT$2.1 billion ($70 million) in the first three months of 2020. Chairman Young Liu told analysts Friday the company anticipates a single-digit percentage decline in revenue in the June quarter from a year earlier. That would be its third consecutive quarterly sales drop.The earnings decline drove home to extent to which Covid-19 and the resultant global lockdown has chilled electronics demand and driven up costs for upstream producers like Hon Hai that had to adapt to supply chain disruption. Global shipments of smartphones fell at their fastest rate on record in the first quarter, hitting the assembler’s sales even though its main production facilities managed to return to full seasonal staffing levels around mid-March.On Friday, Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn, said it incurred costs related to the pandemic of NT$10 billion, though some of that will be compensated by the Chinese government. It added it had put the worst of the slump behind it but the company, which gets half its sales making iPhones and devices for Apple, warned smartphone demand remained uncertain.What Bloomberg Intelligence SaysHon Hai’s outlook for strong sequential and year-over-year 2Q sales growth for enterprise and computing products and components -- comprising about 55% of sales -- supports our outlook of a w-shaped recovery from the pandemic, in our view. But demand cuts may mount in 3Q and drive down sales before a rebound takes hold in 4Q.\- Matthew Kanterman, analystClick here for the research.Read more: Global Smartphone Market Suffered Worst Contraction in HistoryRevenue slid almost 12% to NT$929.7 billion, according to Bloomberg News’ calculations based on previously reported monthly sales numbers.Liu warned that uncertainty will continue to dog electronics demand into the second half, after a singularly poor first quarter.Production at many of Apple’s Asian partners ground to a halt in early 2020 after efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 kicked in. That resulted in severe shipping delays for devices and led to component supply bottlenecks. Consumers also sheltered at home, hammering retail sales. At one point, Apple shuttered all 42 retail outlets in China, a critical market for the company, followed by store closures in other countries. While shops in China have reopened, most of its international ones have not.Covid-19 has also delayed product development and launches. Apple’s four upcoming redesigned iPhones with 5G will come out several weeks later than usual -- but still within the fall window -- Bloomberg News has reported. In May, Apple failed to provide a forecast for the first time in more than a decade.Foxconn has already slashed its 2020 revenue projections in the wake of the pandemic. It told investors in April that it still had time to help Apple launch new iPhones in time for the holidays, but cautioned the schedule could be disrupted if the pandemic persists.(Updates with revenue forecast from the first paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Financial Times
Apple supplier Foxconn’s profits collapse due to coronavirus
Profits at Apple supplier Foxconn plunged by almost 90 per cent in the first quarter, as the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer was hit by supply chain disruptions in China caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Net earnings in the first three months of 2020 fell by 89 per cent compared with the same period last year to NT$2.1bn ($70.2m), the group’s Taiwan-listed flagship Hon Hai Precision said on Friday.
- Reuters
Foxconn quarterly profit hits two-decade low, sees growth from post-virus lifestyles
Foxconn's <2317.TW> first-quarter profit plunged to its lowest in two decades, all but wiped out, after the coronavirus pandemic forced the Taiwanese firm to suspend manufacturing operations in China and knocked demand from customers including Apple Inc <AAPL.0>. New growth was to be found in the work-from-home lifestyles being adopted around the world even if the outlook for smartphone and other consumer electronics demand remained bleak, it said.
- Reuters
Foxconn's Q1 profit tumbles almost 90% on coronavirus fallout
Taiwan's Foxconn posted an almost 90% drop in first-quarter profit on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted production and hit demand from Apple Inc and other major clients. The world's largest contract electronics manufacturer reported net profit of T$2.1 billion ($70.25 million) for the January-March quarter, falling well short of a Refinitiv consensus estimate of T$8.88 billion drawn from 14 analysts. Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said in March that while revenue in the first-quarter would be hit by the pandemic, it was expected to recover swiftly as production returns to normal in virus-hit China.
- Benzinga
Apple Encourages Chinese Tech Company To Rival Foxconn, Aims To Foster Competition
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has advised aggressive Chinese technology firm, Luxshare Precision Industry Co Ltd., to make an investment in a Taiwanese metal casing provider, in order to become a rival to Apple's longtime supplier, Foxconn.What Happened Luxshare has been in negotiations for more than a year with Taiwan-based Catcher Technology, the world's second-largest manufacturer of metal casings, and the discussions have entered a serious phase, according to Nikkei Asian Review.If negotiations are successful, it would enable Luxshare to manufacture high-quality metal casings, and also open the door for the company to gain expertise in assembly technology.Investing in Catcher Technology would allow Luxshare to rival Taiwanese assembly giant Foxconn, which is the world's largest electronics manufacturer and Cupertino's top supplier. Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, Foxconn alone has accounted for 50% of iPhone production, according to the Review.Why It Matters The deal involves Catcher's facilities in China, the expertise of its staff and management, and business opportunities with Apple. The price under negotiation would make this Luxshare's largest investment, reported the Review.Metal casings are crucial to the manufacture of high-end smartphones such as iPhones, and the material used determines how well the device is able to connect wirelessly. Foxconn and Pegatron, its smaller rival, have their own metal casing subsidiaries.For decades, Catcher has been engaged in the production of light metal technology for electronics, and has been a key supplier to Apple for years.Luxshare is as yet undecided on whether it will make the investment, as iPhone sales peaked in 2018. An executive-level source told the Review, "Will the iPhone business be as profitable in the next 10 years as it was in the past decade? No one can guarantee the return of this investment."Price Action Apple shares traded 0.77% lower at $309 in the after-hours session on Tuesday. The shares had closed the regular session 1.14% lower at $311.41.See more from Benzinga * Alameda County Will Allow Tesla To Reopen Fremont Factory If Certain Conditions Met * Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work From Home For As Long As They Want * Musk Is 'Dead Right,' Says Cramer On Tesla Reopening California Factory(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
- Bloomberg
Broadcom Sounds Alarm on Unforeseen Tech Industry Disruptions
(Bloomberg) -- Broadcom Inc. warned customers they’ll need to place orders for parts at least six months ahead of time, a surprisingly long lead time that points to wider than anticipated disruptions to the tech industry’s global supply chain.Lockdowns in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines are “closing or severely restricting business operations,” according to a letter to customers from Nilesh Mistry, Broadcom’s vice president of sales, dated April 13 and seen by Bloomberg News. He urged clients to put in their orders at least 26 weeks ahead of delivery -- meaning anything ordered now will get shipped right around the crucial holiday season. The typical lead time for deliveries is about two to three months.The missive from Broadcom -- which makes crucial components for Apple Inc.’s iPhone -- drives home concerns that Covid-19 is disrupting the tech supply chain well beyond China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged to impact global production lines. While China’s recovering its footing, lockdowns and quarantine orders in crucial regions such as Southeast Asia are exerting a still-unknown impact on the supply of everything from Nintendo Switches to smartphones.“Air and sea transport options have become unreliable and become more expensive and have increased delays,” Mistry wrote. His letter to customers didn’t specify which products are experiencing delayed shipments and what Broadcom’s normal lead time is between orders and delivery. “We hope that as the global community finds better methods to address the Covid-19 pandemic, the conditions will abate and we will be able to resume our normal operations.”The San Jose, California-based company declined to comment.Not Made in China Is Global Tech’s Next Big Trend: Supply LinesTerry Gou, whose Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. makes many of the world’s most recognizable consumer electronics including the iPhone, said in March China’s production restart had proven faster than expected. But he was worried that disruptions outside of China could become an issue as the coronavirus spreads globally.Broadcom is part of the same supply chain that most of the world’s chipmakers use to outsource production, testing and packaging of their products. It’s a critical link for products from mobile phones to data-center hardware. Any delays in the delivery of its semiconductors could spread throughout that supply network, potentially leading to missed launches of some of the world’s most high-profile and widely used electronic devices.Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. will report earnings next week, when they’re certain to face questions from investors about their ability to keep their factories running and fill customer orders. Products from companies such as Qualcomm Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are built mostly by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., then tested and packaged by other companies in China and Southeast Asia. Some companies perform elements of the process in-house, and a shrinking group are capable of doing all the steps themselves.Wireless customers include Apple and Samsung Electronics Co., which use Broadcom chips to add Wi-Fi and other connectivity to some of the world’s best-selling smartphones. In networking, Broadcom’s switch chips are the market leaders, going into machinery that’s used by all of the biggest equipment makers, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co., and companies such as Amazon.com Inc. that build their own gear.Read more: Nintendo Is Likely to Suffer Global Switch Shortages From VirusOn March 12, Broadcom withdrew its annual sales forecast and gave weak near-term guidance, citing the impact of the pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan told investors that, while fundamental demand was still strong and he hadn’t see any negative impact in the first quarter of the year, “visibility was lacking.”As part of a bond offering last week, Broadcom warned investors it was experiencing some disruption to parts of its global supply chain. In the “related risks” section of a regulatory filing, the company highlighted that a main warehouse and a number of assembly and test subcontractors are in Malaysia, which has shut down all non-essential businesses. The warehouse is fully operational, but “many of the facilities of our suppliers and service providers are not,” the company said at the time.“An extended closure of these facilities may require us to move assembly and test services to providers in other countries, and may, eventually, lead to a shortage of some components needed for our products,” Broadcom said. “In the event restrictive measures in Malaysia are intensified and our warehouse is shut down or required to operate at a reduced capacity, our ability to deliver product to our customers would be severely limited.”The test and assembly of chips includes coating them in protective plastic, adding electrical contacts that let them communicate with the rest of the device, and making sure they function. Such work is less expensive and easier to conduct than the processing of silicon wafers that make up the fundamental circuits of the chips. Much of the packaging work was shifted to countries with lower labor costs decades ago.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
iPhone China Shipments Rebound as Manufacturing Resumes
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s iPhone shipments in China rebounded in March as the world’s second-largest economy worked to reboot its manufacturing industry following the disruption caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.Shipments of Apple’s marquee device jumped 19% in March from a year earlier to 2.5 million units, according to Bloomberg calculations based on monthly data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank. The broader smartphone market, including Android devices, shrunk by roughly 22% to 21 million shipments, the academy said.February, which was most impacted by government lockdown measures designed to curb the spread of the virus, saw iPhone shipments plunge more than 60% year-on-year as factories remained shut past the Lunar New Year holiday break.Apple’s assembly plants in China, run mainly by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn, slowly resumed operations through that month and into March. At the mega-complex in Zhengzhou, known as “iPhone City,” more than 200,000 workers had returned to production lines as of late March, according to the local authority’s website. The factory shipped almost 300,000 iPhone units per day at that point, a similar output to its pre-coronavirus capacity, the authority said.Read more: Apple Plans iPad-Like Design for Next iPhone, Smaller HomePodApple is preparing a redesign of its top-tier iPhones, borrowing cues from the latest iPads, as part of a major fall refresh that will see 5G added to as many as four new handset models and the release of two key new accessories, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. Some of the new iPhones could be released several weeks later than normal because of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
China Tech Looks Unready for What’s Coming Next
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Smartphones are a daily necessity, weddings will still go ahead, and enterprises will embrace digital upgrades. Those are just some of the justifications that Chinese technology companies such as Xiaomi Corp., Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have for telling us that the worst may be behind them as the country gets through the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s a risky tone to take. A global recession is upon us, and they’re not fully taking it in.China is looking at the reopening this week of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, after months of lockdown and seeing it as a sign that things are getting better. The messaging is obvious: China is back in business, and its domestic companies are in the clear.But the rest of the world sees a different picture: New York and Milan resemble ghost towns, Tokyo is facing a state of emergency, Manila is under curfew, and Singapore just banned gatherings. “Smartphone demand is resilient; it’s a daily necessity so demand will rebound quickly,” Xiaomi Corp. Chief Financial Officer Chew Shouzi said in a media teleconference March 31. “We are cautiously optimistic about smartphone demand in overseas markets when the epidemic is controlled.”Overseas markets are not OK. Millions of consumers around the world will be left without the ability to pay rent or buy food. Smartphones aren’t likely to remain on the must-have list.All told, more than 1 billion workers are at risk of a pay cut or losing their jobs, the International Labor Organization warns. In the space of just two weeks, the U.S. stunned economists with a record 10 million people filing for unemployment benefits. That may not seem like much in a world of 7.8 billion, yet America remains the world’s largest economy and each of those now jobless is a consumer who carries a lot more spending power than most global citizens. In China, it’s going to be difficult for even domestically focused enterprises to avoid any impact. While Xiaomi sounds optimistic, its biggest competitor is more cautious. Huawei Technologies Co., which gets more than half its revenue from handsets and mostly at home, recently told reporters that 2020 will be a challenging year but that it’s too early to make a forecast.Tencent Holdings Ltd. has a taken a pragmatic approach to preserving its bottom line as revenue declines: cutting costs. Still, every yuan it’s not spending on marketing is one not flowing to other internet and media companies that depend on advertising sales to run their businesses. The social-media and online-games company is confident it can offset any short-term weakness with a push into new services, like cloud computing.China’s coronavirus outbreak helped boost demand for Tencent’s enterprise products, part of a long-term trend, President Martin Lau told investors last month. While that may be true, it won’t help much if thousands of companies cut staff or even cease to operate.That’s a real possibility. Chinese gross domestic product growth could slow to 1.5% for 2020, pushing the labor market to its toughest situation in 20 years, Wang Tao, chief China economist for UBS AG, said in a note to clients this week. Instead of urban employment growing by 10 million annually as in recent years, the figure may decline by a few million. Downward pressure is likely to continue for China’s international trade, pushing exports down 12% for the full year, she wrote.China remains at the center of global technology manufacturing, and the outlook has deteriorated markedly. Researcher IDC Corp. just cut its 2020 forecast for global information technology spending growth to minus 2.7% from 5.1%. Beyond the drop in economic activity, many purchases will be delayed or cancelled purely due to the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic’s conclusion.Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. posted a 12% drop in first-quarter revenue. The Taiwanese company employs up to 1 million people in China to churn out smartphones, games consoles, servers and consumer electronics. If demand for gadgets like Apple Inc.’s iPhones falls, the need for those workers disappears, and with it their spending power. That same scenario will play out for auto workers, garment makers, and machinery operators.The flow-on effect from declining exports will be unavoidable. As my colleague Anjani Trivedi wrote last week, the country’s stimulus measures are paltry compared to what’s being meted out in the rest of the world.That means domestic consumer markets may not be a haven. Millions fewer people will have the disposable income to shop on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Taobao marketplace, or JD.com’s online outlets. They won’t be able to afford games or the products advertised on them, and many will need to tighten their belts when it comes to home delivery or eating out.Chinese technology companies have spent the last few months adjusting to consumers who are stuck spending their money from home. They’ll soon need to grapple with the reality of customers caught with no money to spend at all. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Benzinga
iPhone Maker Foxconn To Produce Ventilators In US
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) supplier Hon Hai Precision Co. Ltd. (OTC: HNHPF) is planning to make ventilators at its Wisconsin manufacturing plant, the company confirmed Wednesday, as reported by Fortune.What Happened Foxconn, as the company is better known, has partnered with medical device company Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT) to make the ventilators, which are critical in the fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the latter's CEO had told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday.Ventilators are needed for patients who fall critically ill from the coronavirus and require breathing support.Other companies, including automakers Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), and the General Electric Company (NYSE: GS) have said they are making the crucial medical devices.Foxconn has been making medical masks since the coronavirus outbreak in China in February. The company was reportedly forcing its employees to return to work at the height of the pandemic in the country.Apple has shut down all its retail stores outside of China due to the pandemic and warned of missing quarterly earnings expectations.Foxconn in March reported a 25% slump in profit year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2019 ahead of the pandemic.Price Action Foxconn shares closed 0.6% higher at $4.78 in the otc market on Tuesday.Apple stock closed 1.16% lower at $259.43 per share and traded 0.2% higher in the after-hours session at $260.Medtronic shares closed 0.48% higher at $94.46 and traded slightly lower in the after-hours session at $94.30.See more from Benzinga * 3M, Trump Strike Deal To Import 166.5M Masks From China, Company To Continue To Supply Abroad * Apple To Make 1M Face Shields Per Week For Coronavirus Health Workers * Apple Accidentally Confirms Unreleased Product That Helps Users Find Lost Items(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
- Bloomberg
Apple Partner Foxconn to Start Making Ventilators in U.S.
(Bloomberg) -- Foxconn, the company responsible for assembling most of the world’s Apple Inc. iPhones, will aid the fight against the coronavirus pandemic by developing and making ventilators in the U.S.The Wisconsin plant owned by Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., will be used to manufacture ventilators, Medtronic Plc Chief Executive Officer Omar Ishrak told CNBC.Foxconn confirmed the partnership in a statement on Wednesday but did not say when it will start making the medical equipment. Evelyn Tsai, spokesperson for founder Terry Gou, said production would take place in Wisconsin and Taiwan.There has been a critical shortage of supply globally for ventilators needed in the treatment of severe cases of Covid-19. Foxconn’s collaboration with Medtronic covers design and development of the devices. Production will start within the next four to six weeks, Ishrak said, without quantifying a volume.Foxconn has been making face masks, used to curb the spread of the virus, in China since February and its subsidiary Sharp Corp. also began churning them out in Japan in late March.The company’s share price was up 5.3% in Taipei on Wednesday. It released better-than-anticipated March-quarter sales numbers on April 6.Fellow Taiwanese tech manufacturing supplier Kinpo Electronics Inc. also announced plans to begin producing coronavirus-fighting medical equipment in the U.S. starting in May.Foxconn’s contract for its Wisconsin plant was signed with great fanfare in late 2017. President Donald Trump, who had helped bring the deal together with the state’s then-governor, Republican Scott Walker, said Foxconn would revitalize U.S. manufacturing and that its massive factory hub would become “the Eighth Wonder of the World.”Since then, the plant-- which was originally intended for making display panels -- has been criticized for delays and changes of direction. The company missed its first-year hiring target by a wide margin, ending 2018 with 178 full-time employees.(Updates with details from founder’s spokesperson in third paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Taiwan's Foxconn says to make ventilators with Medtronic
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn will make ventilators with U.S. firm Medtronic Plc to help patients afflicted by the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Wednesday. Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, is best known for assembling Apple's iPhones at factories in China. In a statement released through company founder Terry Gou's office, Foxconn said it was currently cooperating with Medtronic to design and develop ventilators, and medical and technical personnel from both firms were working closely on this.
- Reuters
Early Asia tech results signal slow recovery after virus battering
Smartphone sales in China are rising again as COVID-19 cases there decline and global demand for chips used in work-from-home networks is surging, positioning Asian tech firms for a slow but steady recovery, their early quarterly report cards showed. Samsung Electronics <005930.KS> guided on Tuesday to a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, as data centres stacked up on memory chips to deal with a rise in virtual meetings. As well, news that the number of new COVID-19 cases were receding in Europe and starting to plateau in some parts of the United States - big markets for Asian tech companies - fuelled gains in Asian shares on Tuesday.
- Bloomberg
Samsung's Symptom-Less Earnings Don't Make It Immune
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Earnings released early Tuesday by Samsung Electronics Co. show that the technology giant dodged any major impact from the Covid-19 pandemic. Expect that to change.Revenue growth was the strongest in six quarters, though 5% is hardly stellar. And while it was in line with estimates, analysts had been trimming expectations over the past few months. That also applies to the better-than-forecast operating profit, with analysts having lowered the bar in recent weeks.Investors should also note that earnings are reported in Korean won. Samsung’s numbers may have been helped by the fact that the won weakened 6.1% against the U.S. dollar in the quarter, the most in more than four years (the currency swung wildly during the period, so the company’s average exchange rate may have been different).With the coronavirus having shut down swathes of the global economy, any growth is to be lauded. Peers including Apple Inc. aren’t likely to have performed as well. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Samsung is in the clear. Much of the strength during the period probably came from its chip business, driven by the needs of internet companies like web-conferencing provider Zoom Video Communications Inc. These have had to boost server capacity to cope with higher demand from employees forced to work from home amid the pandemic.More than 40% of Samsung’s revenue comes from handsets. This sector was already looking lackluster before the coronavirus outbreak. Now, with the U.S. having reported an astonishing 10 million new jobless claims within two weeks, much of Europe on lockdown, and most of Asia in varying degrees of economic strife, it’s unlikely that consumers are eager to pony up for a flashy new smartphone.Apple’s largest supplier has already felt the pinch. On Monday, its Taiwanese assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. announced first-quarter revenue dropped 12%. While Apple accounts for half of Hon Hai’s sales, the other half comes from a broad collection of companies including Dell Technologies Inc., HP Inc. and Xiaomi Corp. It’s unlikely any of them will come through this economic downturn unscathed.Samsung has the strength, and most importantly the cash, to ride out what will certainly be a tough few quarters for the global economy. That size doesn’t give it immunity.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TheStreet.com
Sales at Top Apple Supplier Foxconn Fall 7.7% in March
Sales at Hon Hai Precision Industry were down by 7.7% in March, the company reported in a filing to the Taiwan stock exchange. Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, reported sales of T$347.7 billion dollar ($11.51 billion) in March, down from T$376.6 billion a year earlier. Foxconn's profits also fell 23.7% in the last quarter of 2019 as worked to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic.
- Reuters
Apple supplier Foxconn's sales down 7.7% in March
Sales at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, a key supplier of Apple Inc's products known by its trade name Foxconn, were down by 7.7% in March. The world's largest contract electronics maker reported revenues of T$347.7 billion dollar ($11.51 billion) in March, falling from T$376.6 billion from a year earlier, it said in a filing to the Taiwan stock exchange on Monday. Last month, Foxconn reported a 23.7% fall in profit in the last three months of 2019 as it braced for the impact from the coronavirus pandemic that hit demand from key customers.
- Bloomberg
Foxconn Assures Investors 5G iPhone Can Still Launch This Fall
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s most important manufacturing partner has reassured investors it can still get the latest 5G-enabled iPhones ready for an autumn launch despite global Covid-19 upheaval.Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which makes most of the world’s iPhones, told investors it’s lost time to travel restrictions and other disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But with months to go before the first trial assembly lines start up in June, Hon Hai can still make the deadline, investor relations chief Alex Yang said on a private conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs.Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn, struggled through much of February after the Covid-19 outbreak delayed the return of the hundreds of thousands of workers it needed to assemble iPhones and other electronics. While it’s since resumed normal operations, the month-long hiatus cast Apple’s carefully calibrated product launch schedule in doubt. Much now depends on the course of the pandemic and a postponement remained very much on the cards though the new iPhones should emerge in time to catch the crucial holiday season, Yang said.“We and the customer’s engineers are trying to catch up the missing gap, after we lost some days due to travel ban. There’s opportunity and possibility that we might catch up,” Yang said. “But if there’s a further delay in the next few weeks, months, then you probably have to reconsider launching time. It’s still possible.”Foxconn said in a statement Wednesday’s conference call was intended to communicate its thoughts on the latest developments affecting the consumer electronics industry and not focused on any specific products or customer.Read more: Apple’s Supply Chain Woes Linger Even as China RecoversThe next iteration of Apple’s signature device may well be one of its most important in years -- an iPhone that can make full use of the fifth-generation wireless networks that promise much faster video and gaming. The U.S. company is already a step behind Samsung Electronics Co. and Huawei Technologies Co., which began selling 5G devices last year.Covid-19 is now jeopardizing Apple’s plans. Mass assembly is only one part of the iPhone maker’s supply chain, which encompasses hundreds of suppliers. Apple and its many partners spend months or even years sourcing individual components that are assembled into final products. Any disruptions to that complex network could slow the introduction of future devices. Trial assembly typically begins in early June and -- once finalized -- mass production commences in August, Yang outlined.As China’s largest employer and manufacturer of a plethora of electronics brands, Hon Hai encapsulates how the outbreak disrupted the global supply of made-in-China electronics. Apple scrapped its revenue guidance for the March quarter after the contagion disrupted its production chain: Hon Hai was forced to postpone the reopening of its “iPhone City” mega-complex in the central city of Zhengzhou while it imposed strict quarantine measures on thousands of laborers. But Foxconn has since sharply raised signing bonuses to attract new workers and said it reached full seasonal staffing level earlier than an original target of late March.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Benzinga
Apple Supplier Foxconn's Profit Falls Nearly 25% Year-Over-Year: Report
Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) largest supplier, Foxconn Technology Group, saw its net profit fall 23.7% in the fourth quarter before the coronavirus pandemic spread, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is based in Taiwan. The company is best known for assembling Apple's iPhones.Foxconn's net profit for the fourth quarter ended in December was around $1.6 billion, according to the Journal -- a 23.7% year-over-year decline. Apple has been affected by the pandemic on a number of fronts. The company has had to shut down a number of stores, and Apple has also been limiting the number of iPhones customers can purchase online to two units in multiple countries.Apple shares were trading up 1.38% at $251.15 in Monday's premarket session. The stock has a 52-week range between $327.85 and $170.27.Related Links:Apple Limits Online iPhone Purchases To Two After Closing All Stores Outside ChinaApple's Strong Holiday Sales Boost SharesSee more from Benzinga * The Coronavirus Outbreak's Impact On Global Stocks, Commodities, ETFs * BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun's .5-Million Dinner With Warren Buffett(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
- Bloomberg
iPhone Maker Hon Hai’s Profit Slides Ahead of Virus Outbreak
(Bloomberg) -- Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.’s quarterly profit fell 24% after tepid smartphone demand and U.S.-Chinese tensions depressed sales ahead of the coronavirus outbreak.Apple Inc.’s most important manufacturing partner posted net income of NT$47.8 billion ($1.58 billion) in the October-December period, based on calculations by Bloomberg News off information Hon Hai has submitted to the local stock exchange. That’s down from NT$62.2 billion in the same quarter of 2018.Hon Hai, which gets half its revenue from making iPhones and other devices for Apple in China, grappled with rising U.S. tariffs on its goods even before Covid-19 smothered demand for electronics. Known also as Foxconn, the company has said it’s resolved labor shortages and is now back at normal seasonal capacity.But it remains to be seen how it fared during the about-to-end March quarter, when the outbreak was declared a pandemic and government lockdowns dealt unprecedented shocks to the global supply chain.Signs are that Apple’s Chinese-centric manufacturing -- of which Hon Hai is the linchpin -- is slowly getting back on track. The next iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities remain on schedule to launch in the fall, partly because mass production isn’t slated to begin until the summer, people familiar with matter have said. Yet the sort of assembly that Foxconn specializes in is but one part of Apple’s supply chain: the U.S. company and its partners spend months or even years sourcing components around the world and any disruptions to that complex network could delay future devices.What Bloomberg Intelligence SaysHon Hai’s sales pressure from the global coronavirus spread, U.S.-China trade dispute, smartphone-market weakness and a broader slowdown in tech spending won’t abate quickly, even as its Chinese manufacturing gets back to full seasonal capacity. The world’s largest electronics manufacturing-services provider is investing heavily in automation to reduce costs and improve asset efficiency. Hon Hai has an opportunity to capitalize on the rise of industrial internet-of-things deployment and vehicle electrification, which will develop in the next 3-5 years and provide meaningful sales growth opportunities.\- Matthew Kanterman and Charles Shum, analystsClick here for the research.Read more: Apple’s Supply Chain Woes Linger Even as China RecoversAs China’s largest private employer and a key partner to many of the world’s most recognizable consumer brands, Hon Hai has become a symbol of how the outbreak could disrupt the global supply of made-in-China electronics.Foxconn has already slashed its 2020 revenue projections in the wake of the epidemic, while Apple withdrew its forecast for the current quarter. The contagion has disrupted Apple’s carefully calibrated production chain and shaken up many other Chinese-based manufacturers. Hon Hai was forced to postpone the reopening of its “iPhone City” mega-complex in the central city of Zhengzhou while it imposed strict quarantine measures on thousands of laborers. But Foxconn has since sharply raised signing bonuses to attract the new workers it needs to assemble its products.The Taiwanese company is now diversifying away from its main Chinese production base to mitigate the impact of disruptions. It’s spending more than NT$17 billion building factories in India and Vietnam, responding to customers’ needs, Chief Financial Officer David Huang said at an earnings conference last year. Those two countries will become regional manufacturing hubs, he added.(Includes quarterly profit figures in first two paragraphs)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Apple supplier Foxconn's profit down 24% in last quarter of 2019
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn reported a 23.7% fall in profit in the last three months of 2019 on Monday as it braces for the impact from the coronavirus pandemic that has hit demand from key customers such as Apple. Foxconn, which assembles iPhones at factories in China, reported net profit of T$47.76 billion ($1.6 billion), according to Reuters calculations, slightly above an average forecast of T$46.94 billion from 14 analysts compiled by Refinitiv. The world's largest contract electronics manufacturer did not given any explanation for the decline from T$62.61 billion in the same period a year earlier.
- Bloomberg
Coronavirus Is Expediting iPhone Makers' Plans to Move Beyond China
(Bloomberg) -- Wistron Corp., one of Apple’s manufacturing partners, said this week half its capacity could reside outside China within a year. The declaration underscored how the Asian assemblers that keep the world supplied with iPhones and other gadgets are shifting to a higher gear after the coronavirus showed the folly of staking everything on one country.The move in production out of China has been underway since the trade war between Washington and Beijing reached its zenith last year. Now, Covid-19 is expediting that. Decisions by companies like Wistron and other Apple Inc. partners including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Inventec Corp. and Pegatron Corp., could re-shape tech supply chains.Read more: Trump Tumult Has Gadget Giants Splitting Along U.S.-China LinesTaipei-listed Wistron is targeting India -- where it’s already making some iPhones -- along with Vietnam and Mexico, setting aside $1 billion to fund the expansion this year and next. “We understand from a lot of messages from our customers that they believe this is something we have to do,” Chairman Simon Lin said on an earnings call. “They’re happy and appreciate that we can continue to make such a move and they will continue to work with us.”IPhone assembler Pegatron is also diversifying manufacturing sites, including by adding capacity back home in Taiwan. Chief Executive Officer Liao Syh-jang said Thursday the company hopes to kick-start manufacturing operations in Vietnam in 2021 after setting up a new plant in Indonesia last year, and it’s further looking at India as a location for new facilities. It said on Friday it had agreed to purchase land and a plant in northern Taiwan.Apple’s main assembly partner for AirPods, Inventec, said Tuesday it’s preparing to establish a unit in Vietnam.More than any other assembler, Hon Hai encapsulated how the coronavirus brought the world’s No. 2 economy to a standstill. Better known as Foxconn, it augurs a potential shift in a global production paradigm that’s governed the electronics industry well over three decades. The company also has facilities in India, where it began churning out iPhones last year, and Vietnam. “Trade, the virus, all these things will make the world very different in the next decade,” Alex Yang, the company’s investors relations chief, told investors in a recent call.It’s unlikely that China will fully give up its place as the world’s electronics workshop anytime soon. That’s because it’s difficult to replicate the intricate network of suppliers, competent workers, efficient distribution systems and large home market that the country offers. Large-scale relocation of manufacturing capabilities would also take time. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in late February that the company wasn’t looking to make any quick moves out of China in light of virus-related supply-chain interruptions. “We’re talking about adjusting some knobs, not some sort of wholesale, fundamental change,” he said.Read more: Apple’s Cook Sees Minor Supply Chain Changes in Wake of VirusStill, the outward-bound trend is accelerating, especially among smaller-scale manufacturers. That extends to gadget makers serving customers other than Apple. Meiloon Industrial Co., which makes speakers and counts Harman International Industries Inc. and Xiaomi Corp. among its clients, said it’s seeking alternatives to China-based production and speeding up a move of capacity to places like Taiwan and Indonesia, spokesperson Eva Kuo said in a phone interview.The singularly trying experience of dealing with the outbreak in China will reverberate well after Covid-19 subsides, raising questions about the globalized business model of modern corporations. “It’s a wake-up call,” Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, told Bloomberg Television last month. “China was a given, it was the perfect infrastructure for us to source and buy from there, and to sell. Now of course we have to reconsider scenarios, how to deal with China in the future.”(Updates with Pegatron’s facility investment in Taiwan in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
ReutersGlobal smartphone sales fell 14% in February as coronvirus spread - Counterpoint
Global smartphone sales tumbled 14% in February as the coronavirus spread in China and overseas, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday, a likely harbinger of more declines as outbreaks worsen in many parts of the world. The outbreak prompted Apple Inc and other smartphone makers to shut their China stores in February and government data suggests Apple sold less than 500,000 smartphones in the mainland Chinese market during the month. China, which saw sales drop 38% in February from a year earlier, is now showing signs of recovery with many stores re-opening in mid-March.
