Shares of Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world's second-largest notebook maker, dropped yesterday after the company announced shipment cuts in the fourth quarter.
Compal's stock fell NT$0.25, or 0.9 percent, to close at NT$29.10 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, after dropping earlier by as much as 1.5 percent.
The maker posted on Monday a decline in third-quarter profits resulting from losses of reinvestments with TPO Displays Corp and Vibo Telecom Inc (
Due to shortages in batteries, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, liquid-crystal display panels and central processing units, Compal's president and chief executive officer Ray Chen (
As such, the company expects to ship only 4.6 million portable computers this quarter, down from the earlier target of 4.8 million to 5 million.
Shipments for the whole year were also slashed to 14 million units, 1 million short from original projections.
"The component shortfall in the fourth quarter will push demand to the first quarter next year. This will help relieve excess inventories to avoid what happened in the first quarter this year," Chen said on Monday.
Compal sees the outlook for next year with optimism, forecasting a total shipment of between 18 million to 18.5 million portable computers.
Chen also said on Monday that Compal is ready to face the challenge from a highly speculative merger between Quanta Computer Inc (
Market speculation on the consolidation between the two has fired up recently, but both firms denied the case.
"The merger does not necessarily have to be a very negative thing," Chen said.
He said that if the two industrial heavyweights were to merge -- and thereby combine their finances -- this would definitely create pricing pressure in the market.
But by putting too many eggs in the same basket, those companies will have to source everything -- from components to end products -- from a single maker, he said.
Compal has held various simulations and is able to tackle the challenge if the Quanta-Hon Hai marriage materialized, he said.
Chen also downplayed the possibility of mergers among the top-tier notebook makers, which consist of Inventec Electronics Corp (
"Nothing is impossible, but there are no talks among us going on now," he said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS