Key iPhone manufacturer raises outlook ahead of iPhone 14, says forecast improving

What you need to know

• Apple's biggest iPhone supplier has just raised its 2022 forecast.
• Foxconn says that the supply chain is stabilizing in China and that things are looking up for the rest of the year.
• Apple has seen its supply chain hindered by zero-COVID measures and reports of delays to iPhone 14 production.

Apple's biggest iPhone manufacturer says that the supply chain situation in China is stabilizing and has raised its outlook accordingly.

Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday that Foxconn has raised its forecasts for the current quarter and the rest of the year. Chairman Young Liu said the overall impact on Foxconn of lockdown measures in China had been "rather limited", stating that April revenues and May performance was "better than we estimated" despite zero-COVID measures in Shanghai that have disrupted manufacturing.

He stated, "We previously forecast this year we would maintain a similar level from last year, after factoring in inflation, war [in Ukraine] and other uncertainties, but now we think the full year will be better than our estimate." Liu said manufacturing was operating at normal levels because of closed-loop factory measures, which prevent workers from moving in and out of factory campuses to reduce the spread of infections. Liu stated that COVID controls would remain in place and that it would try to ensure factories would keep operating.

This will be welcome news to Apple ahead of the iPhone 14 launch later this year. Recently it had been reported that Apple's next best iPhone is suffering from production delays that could see it in short supply at launch. It was reported last week that Apple plans to make a "conservative" 220 million iPhones this year, keeping production roughly flat on last year because of challenges to the smartphone industry.

Ming-Chi Kuo stated last week that even though the iPhone 14 Max (Apple's new 6.7-inch regular iPhone) is behind schedule, a bigger threat to Apple is waning global smartphone demand, which is suffering because of China's lockdown measures and the war in Ukraine.

Apple is expected to improve on the iPhone 13 by ditching the notch in its 'Pro' iPhone models, as well as by adding some hefty camera improvements and a new processor to some models. The iPhone 'min' is set to be replaced by the iPhone 'Max', a larger iPhone without the 'Pro' features of its more expensive models.