Acer Inc (宏其石 ), one of the world's top-10 personal computer makers, said September and October sales are expected to fall short of forecasts because of production delays caused by the recent earthquake and blackouts.
September sales are expected to fall about five percent short of the forecast NT$10 billion to NT$11 billion, Acer's chief financial officer Philip Peng told Bloomberg News. October sales are expected to fall about a fifth short of its forecast NT$15 billion, he said.
The firm has been making strenuous efforts to improve its bottom line this year, including share sales and a wide-ranging reorganization.
"This [quake] was quite a big shock for the world's computer industry,'' Peng said. "Our biggest worry is that we'd have to raise selective product prices, since semiconductor chips are in a serious shortage." In fact, finished notebooks and components are in short supply.
"We don't have any definite plans to raise prices," said Brian Chong of Acer's notebook business unit in Taipei, "but we're observing what's happening in the industry ... we're still gathering the latest pricing from the US."
"We heard Dell had increased its prices,'' Peng told Bloomberg yesterday. "Now we're watching Compaq and IBM. If they follow suit, so will we."
It appears that Peng may be about to put his words into action. Speaking to the Taipei Times yesterday evening, a source at Acer indicated that Compaq and IBM had indeed joined Dell in raising prices. The three US companies dominate the notebook market, and, as well as being Acer's competitors, order large numbers of notebooks from Taiwanese manufacturers such as Acer, Quanta, Compal and Arima.
Even before the quake, an increase in notebook prices was on the cards, said Chong. "I think this [price rise] has much less to do with the quake than with the increase in component prices that's been going on for the past few months ... the quake is just the trigger."
Components creating price pressure for notebook makers include LCD screens, DRAM chips, and chipsets. Taiwan's production of all these parts has been affected by the quake; however, the most important suppliers are overseas.
Taiwan also ranks No.1 worldwide in the production of scanners and many computer parts. And the island is the fourth-largest maker of memory chips, accounting for more than 10 percent of global output.
Last Tuesday's earthquake and subsequent blackouts disrupted most manufacturers' output for several days. The effect is expected to ripple through the world's computer and components industry for some time.
Prices of some components have soared. Spot prices for standard 64-megabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips were as high as US$21.46 yesterday, up 43 percent from US$15 the day before the quake, according to the American Integrated Circuit Exchange -- prices have almost quadrupled from a low of about US$4.50 in June.
If Acer raises its notebook prices, Peng said, "gross margins should rise, since demand is extremely hot." Acer's net margins now stand at about 3.5 percent.
The company suffered losses of about NT$200 million a day when its factories were idled by blackouts. To make up for lost production, its factories are working two or three shifts a day, compared to one before the quake, Peng said. The third quarter is usually the busiest for the island's electronics companies as US computer makers and retailers prepare for the Christmas season.
Acer shares slid fell by the maximum daily limit of 3.5 percent yesterday, closing at NT$59, down from NT$63 before the quake. Its trading volume since the Taiwan stock exchange reopened Monday after a five-day interruption was less than one percent of normal, as sell orders swamped buy orders.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS