Apple stock climbed more than 1% in premarket trading

Apple stock climbed more than 1% in premarket trading on the report that Apple told suppliers to reaccelerate their production of the iPhone for November, December and January.

In September and October, production of the iPhone 13 range fell 20% short of previous plans, people directly involved in its supply chain told Nikkei. This was even after Apple prioritized all the necessary components for the latest flagship smartphone -- the company's most important revenue source -- at the expense of other products such as iPads and older generations such as the iPhone 12 and iPhone SE.

Over the same period, the reallocation of the shared components squeezed iPad assembly even more, leading to about 50% less production volume than planned, while the production forecast for older generations of iPhones also dropped around 25%, Nikkei heard from multiple sources. The situation for iPads and older iPhones was not much improved by November.

Apple was forced to scale back its total production goal for 2021, people briefed on the matter told Nikkei. At the beginning of December, the company was on course to make only about 83 million to 85 million units in the iPhone 13 range before the end of the year, falling short of the ambitious goal of up to 95 million units it had set to capture the first shopping season after Western economies reopened from COVID-19 lockdowns. Overall, despite reaccelerating production in November, Apple was still falling about 15 million units short of its aim to build 230 million iPhones in total this year, an ambitious goal set at the beginning of 2021, sources said.

Apple told suppliers to reaccelerate their production of the iPhone for November, December and January, after stumbling for the past few months, sources said. Communications in the past two days indicate it hopes to get more than 5 million units closer to its original goal than it expected at the beginning of December. "Demand for the iPhone 13 range should be able to extend until January next year, as Apple does not want to waste the opportunity to take more ground from Huawei, while Samsung and Xiaomi are suffering from chips and component mismatches," said a source with direct knowledge of the conversations.