China Economy

Shares of Apple suppliers in Asia sink amid worries about iPhone demand 

Key Points
  • Apple dropped 5 percent overnight in New York trading after Lumentum, a manufacturer of lasers that can sense in 3-D, said it received a request from one of its largest customers to "materially reduce" shipments to them.
  • The worries about slowing iPhone demand spilled over into shares of Apple suppliers in Tuesday trading in Asia, where most of the companies are based.
  • Stocks of suppliers such as Pegatron plunged to multi-year lows before recovering much of their losses.
Philip W. Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing of Apple, speaks about the the new Apple iPhone XR at an Apple Inc product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, September 12, 2018.
Source: Apple

Shares of some major Apple suppliers fell in Asian trading Tuesday — some to multi-year lows — after the iPhone maker's stock plunged on concerns about customer demand.

Apple dropped 5 percent overnight in New York trading after Lumentum, a manufacturer of lasers that can sense in 3-D, said it received a request from one of its largest customers to "materially reduce" shipments to them. Lumentum shares dropped nearly 33 percent. The company did not name Apple in Monday's report, but previously listed the tech giant as its largest customer in a filing for fiscal year 2018.

Also on Monday, TF International Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo reversed his view on iPhone XR sales by cutting his outlook for shipments by 30 million units. The reduction followed a Nikkei report earlier this month, citing supply chain sources, that Apple told Foxconn and Pegatron to stop plans for additional iPhone XR-related production lines.

The worries about slowing iPhone demand spilled over into shares of Apple suppliers in Tuesday trading in Asia, where most of the companies are based.

In Taiwan, Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn, fell more than 2 percent to its lowest in nearly a month.

Pegatron briefly fell more than 5 percent to its lowest since May 2014, before recovering losses and trading higher. Largan Precision also temporarily tumbled more than 5 percent to its lowest since July 2016 before reversing and rising more than half a percent.

In Japan, Panasonic declined 2.5 percent and Alps Electric dropped nearly 5.8 percent, both to their lowest since late 2016. Nitto Denko fell more than 4 percent.

Hong Kong-traded AAC Technologies briefly fell more than 7 percent to its lowest in more than two years, before recovering much of its losses.

In Shenzhen, Luxshare fell more than 5 percent to its lowest in a month, while Suzhou Anjie Technology fell more than 1 percent.

The major Asian stock indexes pared opening losses by midday Tuesday.

— CNBC's Todd Haselton and Lauren Feiner contributed to this report.

WATCH: Apple's stock is plunging — Here's what six experts say investors should know

Apple stock is plunging — Here's what six experts say investors should know
VIDEO2:1402:14
Apple stock is plunging — Here's what six experts say investors should know