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).
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
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