Key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) could achieve an “unprecedented” performance in the first quarter, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said.
“Our performance in the first quarter might surpass how we fared in the past few years, and it is likely that some staff at key sites might only get two days off during the Lunar New Year holiday,” Liu said in prepared remarks for the company’s annual workers’ party yesterday.
Manufacturers around the world are racing to build up inventory out of fear that outbreaks of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and other uncertainties could further disrupt their supply chain.
Photo courtesy of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co
Earlier this month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told analysts that he expects companies to maintain higher levels of inventory to ensure supply security.
Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), runs most of its manufacturing operations in China, which is to shut most offices and businesses for seven days starting on Jan. 31 for the Lunar New Year holiday.
In addition to being a key manufacturing partner to Apple Inc, the Taiwanese company also makes gadgets for global brands including Dell Technologies Inc, Sony Group Corp and Nintendo Co.
Hon Hai has for the second year held an online annual event for the company’s employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s employees in more than 20 countries — including Taiwan, China, Vietnam and the US — joined the event online, the company said.
Liu said the group earned record revenue of NT$5.94 trillion (US$214.42 billion) last year, up nearly 11 percent from 2020, while net profit in the first three quarters of the year rose 70 percent to NT$94.92 billion from the previous year, also a record high.
Liu said that the next large projects Hon Hai plans to be involved in are electric vehicles and the metaverse.
Separately yesterday, 17 workers at Hon Hai subsidiary Ingrasys Technology Inc (鴻佰科技) in the Farglory Free Trade Zone (遠雄自由貿易港區) in Taoyuan have tested positive for COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The company, a provider of network computing solutions, has been ordered to suspend operations indefinitely, the CECC said.
As some of the employees had also traveled to the company’s plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), the Hsinchu County Government said it would conduct polymerase chain reaction tests on all 1,200 employees at the plant.
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