Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday reported that sales for last quarter declined 10.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and 15.13 percent year-on-year to NT$143.16 billion (US$4.75 billion).
In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Wistron said its sales last month were NT$48.24 billion. That brought the company’s annual sales last year to NT$624.15 billion, down 5.12 percent from NT$657.83 billion in 2012.
Total laptop shipments last quarter were 5.7 million units, down 5.78 percent from 6.05 million units in the previous quarter, the company said.
The quarterly figure beat Citigroup’s estimate of 5.3 million units.
Wistron’s annual laptop shipments of 24.1 million units last year also beat Citigroup’s estimate of 23.7 million units. For all of last year, laptop shipments fell by 24.76 percent from 31.5 million units in 2012, the company said.
“We expect the PC industry to consolidate in one to two years, beginning with original design manufacturers [ODMs] and followed by original equipment manufacturers,” Citigroup analyst Wei Chen (陳思維) said in a report released on Tuesday.
Chen forecast Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) to produce about 40 million units of laptops this year at a 30 percent market share.
Wistron, Inventec Corp (英業達) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) are likely to manufacture less than 20 million units this year, he said.
“With huge scaling difference, other ODMs [such as Wistron, Inventec and Pegatron] will become less competitive and could eventually be forced to exit the notebook ODM business,” Chen said.
For this quarter, Chen forecast Wistron would ship 4.87 million laptops, 14.56 percent less than the 5.7 million units recorded for last quarter.
Chen forecast Wistron’s annual shipments for this year would drop 19.03 percent from last year to 19.19 million units.
In a separate filing, Inventec yesterday reported that sales last quarter grew 9.9 percent quarter-on-quarter and 19.11 percent year-on-year to NT$134.63 billion.
Inventec’s laptop shipment increased 8.4 percent to 6.45 million units last quarter from 5.95 million units during the third quarter of last year on increased orders placed by Hewlett-Packard Co, the company said.
That took the company’s annual laptop shipments to 20.85 million units last year, beating Citigroup’s estimate of 20.4 million units.
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