Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry (better known as Foxconn), the largest electronics contract manufacturer in the world, expects strong demand last year from Apple and other smartphone brands to fuel record profits for the firm.

Foxconn’s consolidated sales increased 6.5 per cent last year to TWD4.21 trillion ($131 billion). Q4 revenue surged 58 per cent to about TWD1.5 trillion, which is a quarterly record.

In addition to huge orders for the iPhone 6 from Apple in the second half of the year, it had strong demand from Sony, Huawei and Xiaomi, the China Post said. In 2013 Apple accounted for 40 per cent of its revenue.

Analysts, the Post reported, expect an improvement in its gross margins in Q4. In Q3 its gross margin was 7.1 per cent while its net margin was 2.6 per cent.

Analysts are forecasting an annual net profit of more than TWD120 billion, which is a 12 per cent increase from its 2013 profit of TWD106.7 billion.

The company is expected to handle as much as 70 per cent of the orders for iPhone 6 models and assembles all of Apple’s iPad Air 2 tablets, the Post said.