Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that revenue last quarter expanded at a faster-than-expected pace quarter-on-quarter after a spike driven by the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 14 series.
The major iPhone assembler said that sales last month surged to NT$822.3 billion (US$25.9 billion), up 83 percent from NT$448.91 billion in August, due to smooth production and strong growth momentum from smartphone demand.
Sales grew 40.39 percent from NT$585.73 billion a year earlier, it said.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
“Strong revenue performance in smart consumer electronics products was the main revenue driver,” Hon Hai said in a statement.
In addition, cloud-based and networking products grew by a double-digit percentage last month, thanks to increases in server shipments, the company said, adding that computing products also delivered significant growth.
Third-quarter revenue jumped 15.62 percent quarterly and 24.4 percent annually to NT$1.746 trillion, the best third-quarter revenue in the company’s history, it said.
Last quarter’s performance greatly exceeded Hon Hai’s previous guidance of a flat quarter compared with the second quarter. The company had expected a high base of comparison a quarter earlier and uncertainty about consumer adoption of new iPhones to constrain its revenue growth.
Hon Hai said it is “cautiously positive” about its business performance this quarter given rising inflation, the development of the COVID-19 situation and supply chain issues.
Cumulative revenue for the year through last month totaled NT$4.66 trillion, up 13.66 percent from NT$4.1 trillion a year earlier.
The company kept its revenue growth forecast for this year unchanged.
Hon Hai is the major assembler of the iPhone 14 series, with 60 to 70 percent of orders, TF International Securities Group Co (天風國際證券) analyst Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) said.
Hon Hai would “markedly benefit” from an increase in average selling prices of iPhone 14s, Kuo said.
Apple has asked Hon Hai to switch its iPhone 14 production lines to make to iPhone 14 Pro models to meet higher demand, he wrote on Twitter last week.
The average selling price of iPhone 14 phones would rise by about 15 percent compared with iPhone 13 devices to between US$1,000 and US$1,050, as sales of iPhone 14 Pros appear better than expected, he said.
Shipments of iPhone 14 Pros are projected to reach 60 to 65 percent of total iPhone shipments, outperforming last year’s Pro series, which had a shipment share of 50 to 55 percent, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note last month, adding that Hon Hai would be a major beneficiary, as it is the exclusive supplier of the iPhone 14 Pro series.
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