Foxconn profit falls as iPhone sales flag

Fall in sales from the electronics maker’s biggest customer led to nearly 18% drop in profit

Beijing—Foxconn Technology Group’s profit fell about17.7% in the first quarter after its biggest customer, Apple Inc., reported an accelerated decline in sales of the iPhone.

Taiwan-based Foxconn said Tuesday that its net profit in the January-to-March quarter was 19.83 billion new Taiwan dollars (US$637 million), lower than the NT$23.05 billion average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet. Its net profit over the same period in 2018 was NT$24.08 billion.

Foxconn’s revenue for the quarter rose some 2.5% to NT$1.054 trillion from the previous year’s NT$1.029 trillion.

Foxconn, known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is the world’s largest contract electronics maker and assembles Apple’s iPhones among other products. It relies on Apple for about half of its revenue, according to analysts’ estimates.

Apple said sales of the iPhone, long the biggest driver of its business, fell 17% for the three months through March 30.

The product has been hobbled by smartphone owners holding on to devices longer and by competition from Chinese rivals offering lower-priced handsets that are rich in features.

In the latest headache for Apple, the U.S. included smartphones in the list of nearly $300 billion of new Chinese imports that would face 25% tariffs as early as this summer.

Foxconn doesn’t hold earnings calls or briefings.

The results come after Foxconn released a list of board nominees on Friday, following Chairman Terry Gou’s announcement last month that he wanted to run for president of Taiwan.

Mr. Gou said he would run in the main opposition Nationalist Party’s primary election if permitted. Mr. Gou was among the company’s board nominees. Others include Young Liu, who heads Foxconn’s semiconductor business; Fang-Ming Lu, a current board member and the chairman of Asia Pacific Telecom Co.; J.W. Tai, the president of Foxconn subsidiary Sharp Corp.; and Sung-Ching Lu, the chairman of Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd.

On June 21, shareholders of Foxconn are set to vote on the nominees at an annual meeting. Once the new board is approved, it will choose a chairman, a company spokesman said.