Shipments of new iPhone series to be unveiled in mid-September are expected to reach 70-75 million units by the end of the year, the best performance since the launch of iPhone 6 series, according to industry sources. This is expected to push up the revenues of main supply partners including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Foxconn to hit new highs in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Apple is slated to release three new iPhone devices soon, including two OLED models (5.8-inch and 6.5 inch) and a 6.1-inch LCD model. The impressive upgrades in overall designs and functions as well as the price-friendliness of the 6.1-inch model should give the new devices a shipment momentum much stronger than their two preceding generations, the sources said.

Most supply chain partners are expected to see revenues pick up significantly along with smooth production and strong shipment momentum before peaking in the fourth quarter of the year.

Among them, TSMC, which has landed all the 7nm foundry orders for A12 application processor chips for the new iPhone devices, has seen its revenues pick up starting in July, offsetting a significant revenue contraction ensuing from the sharp decreases in orders for crypto mining ASICs from China's Bitmain and Canaan Creative. The foundry is also expected to fully recover in the fourth quarter from a virus infection's impact on its third-quarter sales performance in August, allowing the company to maintain a higher single-digit growth for its 2018 revenues.

After scoring revenues of US$16.31 billion for the first half of 2018, TSMC is estimated to rake in revenues of US$8.28-8.38 billion in the third quarter and see its fourth-quarter revenues hit a new quarterly high of US$10.4-10.5 billion in the fourth quarter, according to its latest revenue estimates.

20% revenue contribution for 7nm process at TSMC

Industry sources said that besides volume fabrication of Apple's A12 AP chips on 7nm process, TSMC will also use the process to produce HiSilicon's Kirin 980 chipsets for Huawei's latest new-generation Mate 20 flagship series that will hit store shelves in October, as well as Qualcomm's new-generation Snapdragon 855 SoCs to be released soon. By the end of 2018, 7nm process is expected to contribute 20% to the foundry giant's annual revenues for the year, and the contribution ratio is estimated to surge further in 2019, when 7nm volume production of Nvidia and AMD GPU chips are set to kick off.

The assembly of new iPhone devices are shared by Foxconn and Pegatron, with the former landing the majority of the assembly orders for the two OLED-screen models and 30% of orders for the LCD model, the sources disclosed.

Bolstered by the volume production of the new iPhone models, Foxconn saw its July revenues hit a new high ever seen for the same month and its revenue growth momentum is expected to remain through the end of 2018. The company's profitability for the second half of the year is expected to be significantly better than the first half, the sources indicated.