Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s largest maker of notebook computers, yesterday said first-quarter revenue declined 24 percent from the previous quarter and was 10.61 percent lower than a year earlier, citing seasonality factors and product-mix adjustments.
Consolidated revenue in the January-to-March period totaled NT$224.62 billion (US$7.6 billion), compared with NT$295.57 billion in the previous three months and NT$251.29 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Notebook shipments totaled 13.2 million units in the first quarter, a decline of about 5 percent from the previous quarter, but still better than the company’s forecast of a quarterly drop of 10 to 15 percent. The numbers were also higher than the 11 million units it shipped during the same period last year, company data showed.
Quanta has been adjusting its product mix in recent years, increasing its focus on higher-margin products, such as servers and cloud technology-based items, as the company looked to improve its bottom line in the face of fierce competition in the low-margin global PC market.
Meanwhile, rising shipments of notebooks not only pushed up the first-quarter revenue of Wistron Corp (緯創) from the year before, but they also helped the firm replace Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) as the world’s second-largest contract notebook manufacturer, according to data released by the two companies yesterday.
Wistron posted NT$176.97 billion in consolidated revenue in the first three months, up 28.91 percent from a year earlier, but down 9.36 percent from the previous quarter, its statement showed.
Compal’s first-quarter sales dropped 5.85 percent year-on-year and 6.83 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$161.07 billion, the company said in statement.
In terms of notebook shipments, Wistron sold 8.5 million units in the quarter, down 9.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, but higher than Compal’s 8.1 million units, which were down 8.4 percent from the previous quarter, according to their statements.
Smaller PC maker Pegatron Corp (和碩), a manufacturing spin-off of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), said yesterday first-quarter revenue rose 75 percent from a year ago to NT$144.86 billion.
Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, consolidated revenue was down 1.6 percent, it said in a press release.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it expects any impact of new tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump to hit the company less than its rivals, citing its global manufacturing footprint. Young Liu (劉揚偉), chairman of the contract manufacturer and key Apple Inc supplier, told reporters after a forum in Taipei that it saw the primary impact of any fresh tariffs falling on its clients because its business model is based on contract manufacturing. “Clients may decide to shift production locations, but looking at Foxconn’s global footprint, we are ahead. As a result, the impact on us is likely smaller compared to