Foxconn assures investors 5G iPhone can still launch this autumn

Apple’s most important manufacturing partner, Foxconn Technology Group, has reassured investors it can still get the latest 5G-enabled iPhones ready for an autumn launch, despite the global Covid-19 upheaval.

Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, told investors it has lost time to travel restrictions and other disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

But with months to go before the first trial assembly lines start up in June, Foxconn can still make the deadline, said investor relations chief Alex Yang in a private conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs.

Taiwan-based Foxconn, which makes most of the world’s iPhones, struggled through much of February after the Covid-19 outbreak delayed the return of the hundreds of thousands of workers it needed to assemble iPhones and other electronics products in mainland China.

While the company has since resumed normal operations, the month-long hiatus cast Apple’s carefully calibrated product launch schedule in doubt. Much now depends on the course of the pandemic and a postponement remained very much on the cards, though the new iPhones should emerge in time to catch the crucial holiday season, Foxconn’s Yang said.

“We and the customer’s engineers are trying to catch up the missing gap, after we lost some days due to travel ban. There’s opportunity and possibility that we might catch up,” Yang said. “But if there’s a further delay in the next few weeks, months, then you probably have to reconsider launching time. It’s still possible.”