Taiwanese contract notebook computer makers may report lower shipments for last month compared with September because of a high base of comparison and less of a rush by customers to build up inventories, analysts said.
The launch of new notebook computer models equipped with Intel’s Haswell processor by international brands in August and September helped notebook computer shipments from Taiwanese contract makers rise 24 percent in September from a month earlier to 13.7 million units, they said.
However, shipments for last month are expected to fall from the previous month’s peak because customers are not restocking as quickly as in September, they added.
Taipei-based Digitimes Research forecast at the end of last month that notebook computer brands and contract makers will report about a 10 percent month-on-month drop in shipments for last month.
It also expects shipments for the October to December period to drop 3.2 percent from a quarter earlier.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s largest notebook computer ODM service provider, said it agreed with an assessment that the third quarter would be the peak quarter for the contract notebook computer business this year.
Quanta said it shipped 11 million units for the third quarter, up from 9.7 million units in the first quarter and 10.3 million units in the second quarter.
In September alone, the company’s shipments rose to 4 million units from August’s 3.8 million units, helping its consolidated sales for September rise 4.8 percent from a month earlier to NT$76.14 billion (US$2.59 billion).
Another of Taiwan’s big notebook contractors, Inventec Corp Inc (英業達) shipped 2.35 million notebook computers in September, up 17.5 percent month-on-month.
Its shipments for the third quarter totaled 5.95 million units, up 32.2 percent from the second quarter, smashing previous estimates of a 10 percent sequential rise.
Inventec said the comparison base in September was so high that its shipments would almost inevitably be lower last month and could suffer by comparison throughout the entire fourth quarter.
Echoing its two rivals, Wistron Corp (緯創) said its shipments weakened last month after they rose 15 percent month-on-month in September.
Taiwan’s contract notebook computer producers are scheduled to release their shipment and sales data by the end of next week.
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