iPhone suppliers aren’t expecting business to pick up any time soon

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This year's iPhone production hasn't been seamless.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone component orders for Apple’s suppliers aren’t likely to pick up until the third quarter of this year, a new report suggests.

It’s just the latest bit of bad news in a series of recent reports suggesting that Apple is slashing orders for its present generation iPhones, and may be leaving manufacturers with excess inventory.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is one of the biggest name companies affected. Its second quarter revenues are down up to 7.8 percent for the previous quarter, and around $1 billion less than analysts had been expecting. Gross margins are down, too.

TSMC’s foundry capacity has reportedly been “undermined significantly” due to a lack of new orders from Apple.

It’s not the only company, though. Today’s report suggests that some touch panel makers working for Apple have started cutting back their production, having previously been operating a three-shift schedule in order to handle all of the orders coming in.

Yesterday we reported how shares in other iPhone manufacturers have started falling as a result of uncertainty about the possible end of the iPhone X.

While things will pick up once the next-gen iPhone manufacturing begins in earnest, it seems that suppliers are in for a disappointing few months. So much for that tenth anniversary iPhone supercycle!

Source: Digitimes

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