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.
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