Foxconn Now Sees Better Quarterly Sales After November Rise

(Bloomberg) -- Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.’s sales improved in November and the iPhone assembler said quarterly sales for the last three months of the year will be better than expected.

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Apple Inc.’s most important partner, also known as Foxconn, reported an 18% rise in November revenue to NT$650 billion ($20.6 billion). It was the first year-on-year improvement in monthly results since January, helped by a comparison to last year’s disruptions by Covid Zero lockdowns in China. For the first eleven months of the year, revenue fell 4.9% to NT$5.7 trillion.

Hon Hai also said revenue from October to November was “slightly higher than expected” and that the outlook would be even better than the original guidance for “significant growth” for the December quarter which is typically Hon Hai’s busiest because of year-end iPhone shipments. Apple’s latest iPhone 15 hit store shelves in September.

Still, the iPhone assembler said last month that revenue for the fourth quarter will decline for the third straight quarter.

Apple warned in October that revenue in the December quarter will be about level compared to 2022, as the company grapples with an unexpected challenge from Huawei Technologies Co. and an increasingly hostile business environment in China.

Read More: Apple’s Disappointing Outlook Spotlights Growing China Woes

The Taiwanese company’s sales are expected to drop about 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to analyst estimates. They estimated a drop of 4% only three weeks ago showing a worsening outlook. Sales in 2023 as a whole are estimated to fall 7.5%, which would mark the first yearly revenue contraction since 2016.

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