Citigroup yesterday lowered its forecast for growth of global PC shipments this year to 13 percent from 15 percent on concerns of slowing demand amid global financial turmoil.
The US brokerage also substantially lowered its growth forecast for next year to 5 percent from a range between 10 percent and 12 percent, Richard Gardner, a Citigroup Global Markets analyst, said in a client note yesterday.
“We expect the sharpest slowing in Europe where several US vendors have already implemented price increases to offset the recent strengthening in the [US] dollar,” Gardner wrote.
The Citigroup analyst also cut his earnings forecast for Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and JAVA in the second half of the year and for next year and 2010 to reflect the impact of the global credit crisis and changes in currency values.
Citigroup’s downward adjustments for major US PC vendors are expected to cast a cloud on the outlook for Taiwan’s leading computer contract makers, such as Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) and Wistron Corp (緯創).
Last month, Compal Electronics president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said the world’s second-largest contract laptop maker would lower its shipment forecast to between 28 million and 29 million units this year, down from 32 million units.
Quanta Computer, the No. 1 contract laptop maker, also reduced its forecast to 38 million units this year from 40 million, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing chief financial officer Tim Li (李杜榮).
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
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