PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that it might turn some of its PC assembly plants in India into laptop manufacturing facilities due to a demand from the Indian government regarding its “Make in India” initiative.
Acer Pan Asia-Pacific regional operations president Andrew Hou (侯知遠) told a media briefing in Taipei that the Indian government has said that computer procurement projects up for bidding in 2022 must be made in India.
“Make in India has been an important consideration for the Indian government over the past three months or so, and we are all trying to look for a solution,” Hou said, adding that 60 percent of Acer’s revenue in India comes from government procurement projects.
Photo: CNA
One possibility would be to assist Indian electronics manufacturing service providers in adjusting their production lines to manufacture Acer products, he said.
Acer might also look for assistance from original equipment manufacturers to turn their Acer-brand desktop PC assembly plants in India into laptop plants, he said.
Separately, demand for Acer’s Chromebooks in various Asian countries has grown explosively this year as Acer won large contracts in Indonesia and Japan in the third quarter, the Central News Agency reported, citing Hou.
Other markets such as India and Taiwan also reported robust demand for Chromebooks last quarter, Hou said.
The company’s Chromebook shipments in the Asia-Pacific region grew 575 percent year-on-year last quarter and total shipments in the first three quarters of the year increased by 301 percent, he added.
He expects demand for Chromebooks to slowly grow in the Asia-Pacific as demand from Europe and the US begins to subside in the second half of next year, Hou said.
As Acer’s Asia-Pacific sales benefited from the lifting of COVID-19 lockdowns, third-quarter revenue increased by 15 percent year-on-year, the company said.
Acer’s third-quarter revenue in the Philippines grew 94 percent from a year earlier to US$110 million, surpassing the US$100 million mark for the first time since Acer established its Philippine branch office in 2003.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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