Taiwan’s major notebook contract makers yesterday reported growth in revenues last month amid robust demand for portable computers and netbooks.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s largest contract maker by shipments, saw consolidated sales of NT$59.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) last month, up 12 percent from the same time last year.
Cumulative sales for the first seven months expanded 72 percent to NT$498 billion, the statement said.
The second-largest maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) posted revenues for last month of NT$86 billion, a rise of 39.1 percent. Sales for January to last month rose 60.2 percent to NT$622.3 billion, a company statement said.
The third-largest maker Wistron Corp (緯創資通) posted sales of NT$49 billion last month, just 1 percent higher than last year. Its total sales for the first seven months increased 18.1 percent to NT$341.1 billion.
Smaller rivals Pegatron Corp (和聯) and Unihan Corp (永碩) — both manufacturing firms spun off from Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) — announced combined revenues of NT$32.38 billion for last month. Joint sales to date have grown 10.8 percent to NT$240.4 billion.
“Of the original major notebook manufacturers in Taiwan, we expect Hon Hai Precision Industry Co [鴻海精密] and Wistron to gain market share in 2011, as the former should gain orders from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Asustek, and the latter from Acer, Dell and Lenovo,” said Steven Tseng (曾緒良), an analyst with RBS Asia Limited Taipei Branch.
Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract electronics component maker, made a foray into the notebook manufacturing industry last year and has fast gained market share thanks to its strong supply chain integration capability.
Global notebook shipments in the second quarter missed RBS’ estimates by 3.5 million units, as the market was cannibalized by Apple Inc’s iPad tablet PC, he said.
RBS adjusted downward netbook shipments to 32.4 million next year from its earlier forecast of 46.5 million.
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