Simplo Technology Co (新普科技), the world’s largest supplier of laptop batteries, said a shortage of power cells will continue until the end of the year after peaking last quarter.
Demand for power cells, which are grouped together to make battery packs for notebook computers, exceeded supply by a record 10 percent in the second quarter and the shortfall will ease to 5 percent this quarter, Jackie Ting (丁惠敏), Chief Financial Officer of Hsinchu-based Simplo said in an interview yesterday.
The shortage, caused by fires at Seoul-based LG Chem Ltd in March and a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co factory in October, has prompted competitors such as Sanyo Electric Co to boost production to meet demand. Supply will return to balance at the end of this year after the Christmas-season peak-order period for notebooks, Ting said.
Rising demand from clients such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. coupled with Simplo’s “superior know-how” will help the company’s third-quarter sales grow by about 38 percent to as much as NT$8.4 billion (US$266 million), chairman and chief executive officer Raymond Sung (宋福祥) said at an investors’ conference.
Profit for the period will climb to NT$625 million to NT$650 million, or 15 percent to 19 percent growth, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Simplo reported second-quarter profit of NT$551 million, 23 percent more than NT$447 million a year earlier.
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