Pegatron Corp (和碩), one of Apple Inc’s iPhone assemblers, reported a 31.53 percent year-on-year increase in revenue last month to NT$157.72 billion (US$5.11billion), backed by strong sales of the US company’s latest iPhone series, which has witnessed better-than-expected sales since its launch early last month.
While the company, headquartered in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), did not release figures for its mobile phone shipments, analysts attributed the revenue growth to rising orders from Apple for its latest model, the Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Another major assembler of Apple’s iPhones, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), similarly benefited from rosy sales of the latest iPhone series, posting record sales of NT$587.79 billion, up 0.49 percent annually.
However, Wistron Corp (緯創), another Apple supplier, saw sales last month decline 9.15 percent year-on-year to NT$79.63 billion, as the company mainly produced older-generation iPhones, company data showed.
Hoping to avoid the US-China trade tensions, Wistron has started shipping older iPhone models, such as the iPhone 7, from its production facility in Bengaluru, India, to the domestic market.
It is also mulling expanding its manufacturing capacity in Taiwan and relocating production of laptops and smartphones from China to Southeast Asia.
Fueled by the strong market demand, Apple has asked its suppliers to increase production of its iPhone 11 series by 10 percent, the Nikkei Asian Review reported last week.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based original design manufacturers (ODM) of PCs posted declines in sales last month, affected by the uncertainty arising from the US-China trade dispute.
Contract laptop maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) on Wednesday reported its third consecutive month of annual declines, with revenue dropping 3.12 percent to NT$90.28 billion.
Contract electronics manufacturer Inventec Corp (英業達), which also assembles Apple’s AirPods, reported a 5.89 year-on-year decline in revenue to NT$45.21 billion for last month.
However, Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s largest laptop manufacturer, bucked the trend, with revenue rising 7.57 percent to NT$96.81 billion, ending three straight months of declines.
US market researcher Gartner Inc last month predicted that global PC shipments would decline 1.54 percent on an annual basis to 255.7 million units this year due to “unclear external economic issues.”
The consumer PC market is expected to contract 9.8 percent this year due to longer device life cycles, while shipments of commercial PCs are expected to decline 3.9 percent next year, Gartner said.
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