TAIPEI – Taiwanese electronics giant and iPhone manufacturer Foxconn warned on Monday that its last-quarter earnings this year would take a hit from the coronavirus lockdowns affecting its assembly lines in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

“The company’s visibility for the fourth quarter was originally ‘cautiously optimistic’, but due to the pandemic affecting some of our operations in Zhengzhou, the company will ‘revise down’ the outlook for the fourth quarter,” Foxconn said in a statement.

Foxconn is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, assembling everything from Apple’s iPhones and iPads to PlayStations, televisions, laptops and PCs.

The vast majority of its factories are in China, particularly the eastern city of Zhengzhou, where the authorities have imposed a series of lockdowns.

Those restrictions have hit just ahead of the Christmas period, when there is usually a surge in consumer demand for electronics.

Foxconn did not give any statistical projection for how badly it expected earnings to be hit.

“Foxconn is now working with the government in (a) concerted effort to stamp out the pandemic and resume production to its full capacity as quickly as possible,” the company said.

Foxconn will hold an investor call on Thursday. AFP