Technology sector sees jump in orders

Stock-piling of high-tech inventories prior to the US-led war in Iraq has created a short-term boon for Taiwanese information-technology companies, analysts said yesterday.

"On the tech side so far, we are seeing more benefits than disadvantages from the war as clients are asking for more products to stock up," said Ben Lee, a tech-industry analyst at Nomura Securities in Taipei. "Taiwan tech companies will continue to see some improvement in sales for the next month or two."

Manufacturers will feel a limited impact in the event of a prolonged conflict, another analyst said. "Taiwanese tech companies are probably the beneficiaries of a pre-war anticipatory build-up in inventories," said Chris Hsieh (謝偉民), director of ING Financial Markets in Taipei. "What happens later depends on the scope of the geographical coverage of the war and its length."

Shipping may have to be re-routed away from the Persian Gulf, thereby increasing shipping costs for Taiwanese tech firms that have branches in Europe, Hsieh said.

Chinese-language media said yesterday that the local computer-hardware industry is facing losses of NT$3 billion per day as a direct result of the conflict -- a notion brushed off by local companies. The report didn't cite any sources.

Research firms such as International Data Corp, Gartner Dataquest Inc and the government-funded Market Intelligence Center said they were still compiling data on possible fallout from the war.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), played down the impact of a US-led invasion of Iraq.

"We haven't seen any impact yet," TSMC spokesperson Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓) said.

TSMC has made contingency plans, but did not plan to implement them yet, Tzeng said without elaborating.

The nation's largest maker of mainboards -- the circuit boards onto which computer chips are placed -- said it was too early to evaluate the situation.

"We have felt no real impact at present, and it's too early to really know what effects we will feel," said Tseng Hsun-ping (曾舜平), a spokesperson at Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦). "We will only know the situation a little further into the conflict."

Taiwan's largest maker of flat-screen computer display panels said that its supply channels were located well away from the conflict.

"We source most of our materials in Taiwan and some from Japan, and produce here and in China, so the US war against Iraq is having no significant impact on the company's operations for the time being," AU Optronics' (友達光電) president Chen Hsuan-bin (陳炫彬) said.

Taiwan's most well-known brand name also dismissed the effects of the conflict.

"Acer Inc has already contacted its distributors and freight forwarders to redirect their routes where necessary," the company said in a statement. "In summary, the war on Iraq will not affect Acer's operating or financial activities."