Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, said its revenue fell 12 percent in January-March 2020.
The company expects revenue will show double-digit percentage growth for the second-quarter from January-March though it will still likely mark a single-digit decline from the same period a year earlier.
New growth was to be found in the work-from-home lifestyles being adopted around the world even if the outlook for smartphone and other consumer electronics demand remained bleak, Reuters reported.
Net profit for January-March decreased 90 percent to T$2.1 billion or $70.3 million from a year earlier – the lowest level since the first quarter of 2000.
“Hon Hai will stabilize in the second quarter,” Foxconn said in a statement, adding that all of its main factories in China have now resumed normal operations.
The coronavirus pandemic forced the Taiwanese firm to suspend manufacturing operations in China and knocked demand from customers including iPhone maker Apple.
“Telecommuting, online entertainment and new lifestyles have brought us new growth momentum,” Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way told an investor teleconference.
Its enterprise and computing units are expected to see a yearly revenue growth of more than 10 percent and more than 15 percent respectively in the current quarter.
Its consumer electronics division, dominated by smartphones, is forecast to post 15 percent yearly dip in sales as the virus is set to have “an enormous” impact on demand. The consumer electronics division accounted for 42 percent of revenue in the first quarter.
“For consumer electronic products, because everyone is staying at home, naturally it affects consumers’ purchasing power and such power might take a very long time to recover,” he said.
First-quarter smartphone shipments in China dropped 20 percent, its largest decline ever, data from market researcher IDC showed.
Taiwan-based research firm TrendForce said it expects global smartphone production to slump a record 16.5 percent to 287 million phones in the June quarter from a year earlier as the coronavirus muzzles demand.
Liu declined to given an earnings outlook for the second half or the full year, saying the Covid-19 pandemic had made forecasting too uncertain.
