Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s top contract laptop maker, yesterday reported that its sales expanded for the fourth straight month to NT$69.32 billion (US$2.29 million) last month as a result of industry consolidation.
While last month’s sales represent a 3.77 percent decline from January, the figure represents a 22.69 percent increase from a year ago.
Cumulative sales during the first two months of the year rose 11.57 percent from the same period last year to NT$141.35 billion, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
“The notebook original design manufacturing industry is indeed consolidating due to falling market demand for PCs that has forced many notebook brands to shift orders to large-scale contract makers,” said an official related to Quanta’s investors relations, who declined to be named.
A low comparative base was also a major cause for Quanta’s double-digit annual growth in sales during the first two months of the year, the company said.
Quanta said it shipped 3.3 million units of notebooks last month, down 8.33 percent from 3.6 million units in January, but up 13.79 percent from 2.9 million units a year ago.
Based in Taoyuan County, the company said it has retained its sales guidance for the current quarter unchanged, at a double-digit percentage point decline from NT$271.5 billion last quarter due to seasonal factors.
However, regarding the whole year, Quanta expects “substantial market-share gain” because of the ongoing consolidation within its industry, the company said.
“While demand for notebooks is weakening, we forecast the company’s sales of servers to achieve growth of more than 20 percent this year from last year, due to a better client portfolio,” Quanta said.
Since the second half of last year, Quanta had been receiving new orders for higher-priced cloud-based servers, including white-box ones, from new enterprise customers as well as telecoms, the company said.
In a report released yesterday, Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) said Quanta is likely to become one of the major beneficiaries of a new market trend, in which more Web service vendors adopt “white-box” servers, rather than standard ones, to operate their businesses.
With increased server orders, Quanta’s total shipments this year could reach 1.46 million units, or about 15 percent of global server shipments, the brokerage said.
Separately, Taipei-based Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest contract notebook maker, yesterday reported that its sales increased 9.33 percent to NT$49.51 billion last month from a year ago.
The figure brings Compal’s cumulative sales during the first two months to NT$102.98 billion, up 0.5 percent from NT$102.47 billion during the same period last year.
Quanta shares closed down 0.9 percent at NT$77.3 and Compal shares fell 1.23 percent to NT$20.15 in Taipei trading yesterday, while the benchmark TAIEX fell 0.56 percent.
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