Inventec Corp (英業達), the nation's No.4 laptop computer maker, is expected to see a spike in shipments this year on news that Japan's Toshiba Corp may accelerate outsourcing to Taiwanese manufacturers, analysts said yesterday.
"Inventec will be the biggest beneficiary by grabbing a bigger portion of increased orders than rival Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) if Toshiba picks up its outsourcing at a faster pace," said Grace Chen (陳星嘉), a computer-industry analyst with Insight Paci-fic Investment Research (月涵投顧).
In an effort to cut production costs, Toshiba, the world's No.3 maker of laptop computers after Dell and Hewlett-Packard Co, plans to move all production of notebook computers to its factory in Hangzhou, China, next year and to increase outsourcing to Taiwanese manufacturers, the Nikkei English News reported yesterday.
Toshiba has already increased its notebook-computer orders to Taiwanese computer original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to more than 30 percent of its total computer shipments this year from approximately 15 percent in previous years, Chen said.
She said that Inventec was likely to see shipment surge to around 3 million units this year, up from 1.5 million last year, thanks to new orders from US computer giant Dell Inc.
"But a falling gross margin remains a key issue for local computer makers, including Inventec," she warned.
Compal's gross margin already declined to below the bellwether 10 percent in the fourth quarter last year, according to company officials.
Another analyst said Toshiba's decision was somewhat belated since it had already lost its top position to Dell and HP, which farmed out the bulk of their production to Taiwanese PC contract makers a long time ago.
To cater to the market's need for diversified PC models and greater flexibility of product launches, international computer vendors are joining the global trend of collaborating with OEMs to boost product lineup and cut costs, said Steven Tseng (
Tseng said Compal and Inventec will remain the major notebook-computer suppliers for Toshiba.
"I don't see a third supplier jumping up to take a share of the pie," he said.
Compared to Inventec's steep rise in shipments, Compal, Toshiba's long-term contract partner, told investors in February that it expected shipments to rise to 8 million units, up 45 percent from the 5.5 million shipped last year.
Inventec shares rose by 1.82 percent, or NT$0.4, to end at NT$22.4 on the TAIEX yesterday.
Shares Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) dropped 0.64 percent to NT$77.5.
Compal lost 2.29 percent to close at NT$42.60.
During the slow first quarter, Inventec posted higher sales at NT$27.66 billion, up 15 percent from NT$24.1 billion in the peak fourth quarter last year. That represents about a 46 percent increase from the NT$19 billion in sales in the same period a year ago.
Looking ahead, Inventec is expected to enjoy a gradual growth in sales during the current quarter, Tseng said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to