MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2022) Apple chief financial officer Luca Maestri said that the disruption in supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could result in losses of up to $8 billion for the company in the second quarter of 2022.
On Thursday, Apple released financial results for its fiscal 2022 second quarter, ending on March 26, where it reported a record $97.3 billion quarterly revenue.
"Supply constraints caused by COVID-related disruptions and industry-wide silicon shortages are impacting our ability to meet customer demand for our products. We expect these constraints to be in the range of $4 billion to $8 billion, which is substantially larger than what we experienced during the March quarter," Maestri told a conference call on the company's quarterly financial results.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, noted that "COVID is difficult to predict," adding that the company is "doing a reasonable job currently navigating what is a challenging environment."
Among other factors affecting revenues was the suspension of Apple sales in Russia, which is expected to impact the company's year-on-year growth by some 150 basis points next quarter, Maestri said.
The semiconductor crisis, or the global chip shortage, began in 2020 and was mainly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a significant increase in demand for computers, laptops and other means of teleworking. This, in turn, resulted in increasing prices and shortages of semiconductors.
