The world's biggest contract electronics maker, Taiwan's Foxconn, said Tuesday that the year's second half is heading "in a better direction" as Shanghai's Covid-19 lockdown appears to be easing.

"We are quite confident in the stability of our supply chain for the second half of this year," Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way said at the annual shareholder meeting.

The Shanghai government will allow all residents in 'low-risk' places to go back to work starting Tuesday.

Foxconn is seeking to become the first electric vehicle (EV) maker "not short on material supplies", according to Liu, referring to a prolonged global chip shortage that has obliged carmakers to halt production and hurt smartphone production including Apple Inc.

"A car that costs tens of thousands of dollars cannot be shipped because of a tiny chip worth fifty cents. This has been a pain for our customers," he said.

Foxconn is also aiming to capture around 5% of the global EV market by the end of 2025 and has said it is hoping to increase its capacity to make electric vehicles' chips, many of which are small lower-end integrated circuits including those used in power management.

The company had earlier this month warned that due to rising inflation, revenue for its electronics business including smartphones could slip this quarter, cooling demand and escalating supply chain issues partly due to lockdowns in China.

Foxconn reiterated that while China's strict Covid-19 restrictions had only a small impact on production as it kept workers on-site in a "closed-loop" system, demand for its products in the country has suffered as people remain locked in their houses.

Foxconn's shares closed up 2.3%, outperforming a 1.2% rise in the broader market. So far, they have gained 8.7% this year, giving the company a market value of $52.3 billion.