Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has sharply increased its shipments of Apple Inc’s iPhone X smartphones after resolving a production bottleneck, a research note by Taipei-based KGI Securities (凱基證券) said.
Hon Hai, believed to be the sole assembler of the iPhone X, is shipping 450,000 to 550,000 units of the smartphone every day, compared with 50,000 to 150,000 units per day one to two months ago, KGI analyst Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) said in the note.
Kuo, who has a record of accurately predicting Apple’s moves and assessing the fundamentals of its suppliers, said iPhone X shipments are expected to grow sharply in the fourth quarter of this year.
In September, Apple unveiled three new iPhone models, including the 5.8-inch iPhone X to mark the 10-year anniversary of the smartphone.
The iPhone X early this month went on sale globally, but has been unable to meet demand due to delayed shipments as a result of specification upgrades.
The delays adversely affected Hon Hai’s gross and operating margins for the third quarter, although its third-quarter net profit rose 17.61 percent annually to NT$21.03 billion (US$701 million), which analysts attributed largely to returns on its non-core business investments.
Kuo said that another of Apple’s Taiwanese suppliers, Career Technology (MFG) Co Ltd (嘉聯益), is expected to increase its monthly supply of liquid crystal polymer-made long-term evolution antenna by 100 percent this month and next.
LG Innotek Co of South Korea and Sharp Corp of Japan, which are dot projection module suppliers to Apple, have seen their yield rates rise to between 80 and 90 percent from less than 60 percent about two months ago, he added.
MacRumors, a Web site that follows Apple and its suppliers, reported that due to an increase in iPhone X shipments, the delivery time in Europe and Asia could be reduced from three weeks to about one or two weeks.
The iPhone X’s delivery times in the US and Canada have already been shortened to one to two weeks, the Web site said.
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