iPhone Assembler Foxconn Brushes Off Risks of U.S.-China Trade Tensions

BEIJING--Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles Apple Inc.'s iPhones in China, is prepared to deal with risks stemming from the trade dispute between the U.S. and China, executives said Tuesday.

Though clients including Apple and China's Huawei Technologies Co. have made some changes to their orders, Foxconn faces limited impact from such moves, said Young Liu, the head of Foxconn's semiconductor business group, at an investors' conference.

Both technology companies have been caught up in the trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Should Apple need to move its supply chain, Foxconn could do so quickly and expand production at any of its sites outside mainland China, Mr. Liu said at the conference, which took place at Foxconn's headquarters near Taipei. Foxconn relies on Apple for about 50% of its revenue, analysts have said.

Not only does Apple makes most of its iPhones in China, it also relies on China as a market. The company would be hit hard if President Trump's most recent threatened tariffs on Chinese goods go into effect.

Huawei has been the target of a series of U.S. actions that threaten its dominance in telecommunications technology.Among them, Huawei and its subsidiaries' are on an export blacklist that cuts it off from American technology, severely limiting its ability to procure U.S. components for smartphones and other products.

Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also outlined its leadership succession plan, saying it is setting up a committee of nine executives to make decisions on corporate strategy. The operational committee would be under the executive board, Mr. Liu said.

Terry Gou, Foxconn's founder, is seeking to run in Taiwan's presidential election and is preparing to step down as chairman.

Yang Jie

and Yoko Kubota

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2019 05:31 ET (09:31 GMT)

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