Two of Apple’s primary Asian suppliers have posted revenue increases despite reports of a waning global iPhone market.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, both TSMC and Foxconn have recorded a healthy six percent jump in November revenue, helping assuage investor fears about iPhone performance because growth in the smartphone sector has been virtually flat for the past couple quarters:
While reflecting just 30 days of business, TSMC’s and Hon Hai’s performance comes in the middle of the year’s busiest quarter and may help balance the narrative that Apple’s latest line-up — particularly the cheapest iPhone XR — is falling flat with global consumers. Hon Hai’s November revenue of NT$601.4 billion ($19.5 billion USD) was a record for the month and takes January-November sales growth to almost 16 percent — on track for its fastest pace of annual growth in years.
TSMC’s sales of NT$98.4 billion, while reflecting a pullback in growth from October, may underscore its rare position of being the sole processor chipmaker for Apple’s most expensive gadgets. TSMC and Hon Hai climbed more than 1 percent in Taipei.
Strong numbers from both TSMC and Foxconn for the month of November can help counter the negative reports about the iPhone’s performance that have been doing rounds recently. However, a monthly report is not that strong an indicator, and it is certainly not enough to counter the other signals.
TSMC and Foxconn are the only Apple suppliers to have posted strong revenues — almost every other Apple supplier has had to cut their holiday season revenue forecast due to reportedly weak iPhone sales. Apple suppliers like Lumentum, Cirrus Logic, Qorvo, and others that have significantly cut projections for this quarter and the next.
As for Apple and its iPhone, it will be revealing its Q4 revenues sometime in January; only then can we be sure whether or not the company is seeing flagging iPhone sales. The company has already announced that it won’t be reporting the iPhone unit sales per quarter so analysts and others will have to rely on its revenues to ascertain the number of iPhones sold.
