Foxconn sticks to strong end-of-year sales outlook

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a major Apple (NASDAQ:) supplier, on Sunday stuck to its previous outlook of strong year-end holiday sales, and said customers were buying well in China and the United States.

The fourth quarter is traditionally the hot season for Taiwan’s tech companies as they race to supply smartphones, tablets and other electronics to major vendors such as Apple for the year-end holiday period in Western markets.

Foxconn said in a statement that with the second half of the year a “traditional peak season” for consumer tech products, operations “will ramp up sequentially”, sticking to its outlook given last month.

“Significant growth outlook in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter remains unchanged,” it added, without elaborating.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said revenue last month reached T$741.2 billion ($23.09 billion), the second highest ever for October, down 4.56% year-on-year, coming off a high base, and up 12.2% from September.

Revenue in its smart consumer electronics products, including smartphones, saw “significant” growth month-on-month as new products drove demand and ahead of China’s Singles Day shopping event this month and Thanksgiving holidays in the United States, Foxconn said.

The company is the Apple’s biggest iPhone assembler.

Apple, which in September launched a new series of iPhones, on Thursday gave a sales forecast for the holiday quarter that missed Wall Street expectations, hurt by weak demand for iPads and wearables.

Foxconn releases third-quarter earnings on Nov. 14, when it will give more details on its outlook.

Foxconn’s Taipei-listed shares closed down 1.2% on Friday ahead of the release of its October sales, compared with a 0.7% gain for the broader market. Foxconn shares have dropped 4% this year, giving it a market value of $41.5 billion.

($1 = 32.0980 Taiwan dollars)