Compal says orders will boost sales

Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), a Taiwan maker of notebook computers and mobile phones, said sales will rise next year as customers such as Dell Computer Corp and Motorola Inc place more orders.

Dell, the biggest personal computer company, will boost its notebook orders to 1.5 million this year from 600,000 last year, said Eric Chang, Compal's manager of investor relations. Total orders for PC notebooks may reach 3.5 million next year, compared with 2.3 million in 2001, he said.

"We've been conservative with our order forecast'' for 2002, Chang said, adding there was a good chance companies such as Toshiba Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Legend Holdings Inc (聯想), Acer Inc (宏電) and Fujitsu Ltd. will order more notebooks from Compal.

Makers of PCs, semiconductors and mobile phones in Taiwan may benefit from an expected pick-up in demand from one of its biggest export markets, the US, which purchases more than a fifth of the island's goods.

The US economy probably will start expanding by the second quarter, following three straight quarters of contraction. By the second quarter, GDP is expected to expand at a 2.5 percent rate and growth will probably accelerate to 3.9 percent by the end of the year, according to the median of 42 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

Motorola, the second-biggest mobile-phone maker, and other European companies will help bolster Compal's mobile handset sales to seven million this year from 800,000 last year, Chang said. He refused to disclose the company's European customers.

Compal said it expects its thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display sales to increase to 1.7 million this year from 900,000 last year.

Compal's shares are up 23 percent this year.