Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) yesterday revised downward its fourth-quarter sales estimates across all product lines amid a slowing global economy.
Asustek said motherboard sales may have fallen 20 percent quarter-on -quarter in the last three months of last year, compared with its previous guidance of a decline of 10 percent made on Oct. 30.
Shipments of notebook PCs could drop to between 1.5 million and 1.6 million units for the quarter, down from October’s forecast of between 1.7 million and 1.9 million units, while sales of EeePC could reach between 1.4 million and 1.5 million units as opposed to its previous forecast of between 1.6 million and 1.8 million units.
REASONS
Asustek cited excess components and finished goods inventories for liquid-crystal-display monitors and notebooks, an inaccurate pricing strategy and unfavorable exchange rate fluctuations as reasons behind the revisions.
The company now predicts a gross margin of between 10 percent and 13 percent for branded products, an operating margin of between negative 5 percent and negative 8 percent and a net margin of between negative 2 percent and negative 5 percent.
“Although profits for the first nine months of 2008 reached NT$19.254 billion, full-year results could be lower than the company’s expectations,” it said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS