By Ben Blanchard and Sarah Wu
TAIPEI Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and a major Apple supplier, predicted on Thursday strong year-end holiday sales after September sales dropped, coming off a high base for consumer electronics.
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.
Apple last month launched a new series of iPhones that included a new titanium shell, a faster chip and improved video game playing abilities, but it did not raise prices for the new iPhone 15, reflecting the global smartphone slump.
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".
"The fourth quarter should see significant growth compared to the third quarter," it added, without elaborating.
Foxconn beat estimates for second-quarter earnings unveiled in August thanks to a booming artificial intelligence sector but it retained a cautious outlook for this year due to global economic uncertainties.
Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said revenue last month reached T$660.7 billion ($20.46 billion), down 19.7% year-on-year but soaring 60.1% from August.
Third-quarter revenue dropped 11.7% on-year, but was up 18.4% on the previous quarter.
Revenue in its smart consumer electronics products, including smartphones, saw strong growth month-on-month "due to new product launches in September", Foxconn said.
Foxconn is the world's biggest iPhone assembler, but has been trying to diversify into electric vehicles.
For last month, it said that rising shipments of auto components contributed to significant year-on-year growth for its components and other products business.
It added that September year-on-year revenue for cloud and networking products, which includes servers, declined due to "conservative customer pull-in".
Foxconn releases third-quarter earnings on Nov. 14, when it will give more details on its outlook.
Foxconn's Taipei-listed shares closed up 0.5% on Thursday ahead of the release of its September sales, compared with a 1.1% gain for the broader market. Foxconn shares have risen 3.6% this year, giving it a market value of $44.1 billion.
($1 = 32.2860 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Sarah Wu; Editing by Kim Coghill)