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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Apple-oriented parts suppliers around the world are suffering from poor performance in the wake of Apple's sluggish sales of the "iPhone 14" series.
LG Innotek, which has enjoyed the "Apple effect" with Apple as its largest customer, also had dark clouds in its first half of the year.
According to related industries on the 10th, Taiwanese parts makers with Apple as their customers saw their sales fall at the beginning of the year compared to the same period last year.
Ragan, one of Apple's camera lens suppliers, recorded about KRW 250 billion in January-February sales, down 8% in a year. The company's March sales also fell 11.9% year-on-year to 140 billion won. Sales of Flexium and CareerTech, Apple's flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) suppliers, also fell 7.9% and 38%, respectively, in the January-February period.
The slowdown in sales of Apple's iPhone 14, a key customer, was a major negative factor. The decline in iPhone 14 shipments is expected to continue for at least the first half of the year. Market research firm DSCC predicts that orders for iPhone 14 series panels will fall 23% this month from March.
iPhone 14 panel shipments are expected to be the lowest monthly level since July 2022. In fact, LG Innotek suffered an operating loss of 11.4 billion won in the first quarter of 2019 due to sluggish iPhone sales.
LG Innotek's annual sales to Apple last year were 15.1291 trillion won. It increased by 35.2% compared to 2021 (11.1924 trillion won). Apple's sales account for 77.2% of total sales. It increased by 18.9 percentage points from 58.3 percent in 2018, four years ago. Securities firms expect LG Innotek's operating profit in the first and fourth quarters to be in the early and mid-100 billion won range. Analysts say it will be less than half of the same period last year (367.1 billion won).
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
