Xiaomi Corp (小米) is likely to ship only 300,000 notebook computers this year, lower than market estimates of 1 million units, according to the Chinese company’s supply chain sources.
The lower shipment estimates for this year comes after the Chinese company postponed the launch date of its laptops by several quarters, sources said.
Inventec Corp (英業達), Xiaomi’s long-term assembly partner, in September last year said it would help the company make its first-ever notebook product in the first quarter of this year.
The Chinese company later picked Wistron Corp (緯創) over Compal Electronics Co (仁寶) to be the second assembler for its notebooks, people who are familiar with the matter told the Taipei Times.
Both Inventec and Wistron are expected to start shipping Xiaomi notebooks from this quarter — 150,000 units of the 12-inch notebooks from Inventec and 150,000 units of the 13-inch model from Wistron, sources said.
The Chinese company is scheduled to hold a product launch on Wednesday next week in Beijing, which is widely anticipated to introduce its new Redmi smartphone and two notebooks.
Inventec yesterday confirmed that it would start to ship Xiaomi’s 12-inch notebook from the end of this month, but refused to say if projected total shipments would be 150,000 units.
“I can only say the initial shipments for the products are not massive,” an Inventec official said by telephone.
Wistron declined to comment on its clients.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said it is possible that Xiaomi’s notebook shipments would only reach 300,000 units this year due to time constraint for its suppliers.
In addition, the Chinese company might post its first annual decline in smartphone shipments this year, because of “very” weak demand in the first quarter, Yuanta analyst Jeff Pu (蒲得宇) said by telephone.
Pu said that Chinese smartphone demand was bleak in the first quarter, but improved significantly in the second quarter, with the strength extending into this quarter.
However, the recovery would not be enough to offset the weakness in the first quarter, he said.
“We forecast that Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments would drop more than 17 percent to 58 million units this year from last year’s 70 million, which would impact Xiaomi’s smartphone assemblers,” Pu said.
However, Inventec said Xiaomi has not lowered its order forecast for smartphones for this year.
“Inventec still expects to ship between 40 million and 45 million handsets this year, including smartphones for Xiaomi,” a company official said.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling
RSS