Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest maker of notebooks, and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the biggest maker of boards which connect computer parts, said they are trying to increase prices as labor and materials costs rise.
“Customers are willing to listen to this kind of request, whereas before it would be very difficult to raise prices,” Elton Yang (楊俊烈), spokesman for Taoyuan-based Quanta, said by telephone yesterday.
“This price increase is on our wish list,” Yang said.
Quanta and Asustek join Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the second-largest laptop maker, whose clients include Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc, in attempting to pass on expenses to customers. Compal said earlier this week it was prepared for fewer orders this quarter if clients won’t pay more.
“It could be a good chance to raise prices as costs increase, but who knows” if it will be possible, said Nick Wu (吳長榮), spokesman for Taipei-based Asustek.
The price of copper climbed 80 percent and labor costs in China jumped 25 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said on May 6.
A Chinese labor law that took effect on Jan. 1 mandates minimum wages and severance pay, which has contributed to high employee costs there.
Both Quanta and Compal have said they are looking at building factories in Vietnam, which has lower wages, to cut costs and diversify from China, where more than 90 percent of both companies’ production capacity is located.
Compal Electronics also plans to build a notebook computer plant in Poland and another in Brazil, while closing its plant in Manchester, England, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Chen said that Compal planned to diversify investment because of the difficulty in expanding notebook computer output in China, caused by transport and component supply problems, the newspaper said.
In the initial stage, the plants in Poland and Brazil will take care of notebook computer repair, but they would start manufacturing notebook computers later this year should demand arise, the daily quoted Chen as saying.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”