According to Bloomberg, Foxconn, the largest iPhone assembler, announced today that there are now signs of easing a shortage of parts and components that has constrained equipment supply for the past two years.

A Foxconn spokesperson commented at a company event earlier today that there has been a “significant improvement” in parts shortages in the first quarter of 2022 and that “overall supply constraints” are expected to ease in the second half of the year. While TSMC makes Apple’s custom-designed chips, Apple still relies on many industry-standard chips, such as power management. Display driver and power management chips have been among the components that have limited Apple’s manufacturing capabilities, and Foxconn added that power management chips are still in short supply.

The announcement is likely to be an encouraging sign for technology manufacturing as a whole, but TSMC has warned that chip supply will remain tight throughout 2022. Major suppliers such as Foxconn and TSMC are planning to maintain larger inventories in the future to ensure supply security.

In the past two years, smartphone shipments have slowed due to shortages, but supply chain disruptions have mostly affected low-end suppliers, rather than giants such as Apple. Industry analysts believe that the bottleneck will not be fully alleviated until the second half of 2022.

Nikkei Asia reported earlier this month that Apple is grappling with a backlog of iPad orders as it prioritizes iPhone 13 shipments. The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are also still in short supply globally.

While supply chain constraints cost Apple $6 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2021, the company’s supply chain is now firmly in the recovery process as it prepares to launch a slew of new products this year.