Contract laptop computer maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday forecast year-on-year double-digit percentage growth for its laptop computer shipments, thanks to strong demand.
Compal president Martin Wong (翁宗斌) told an investors’ conference that he predicted double-digit percentage growth year-on-year “without too many difficulties.”
Even with uncertainty over component shortages, Compal’s PC and non-PC businesses should grow by double-digit percentage points this year, with overall growth of 20 to 25 percent, Wong said.
Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei Times
Despite high demand for laptop computers, Compal’s sales in the first quarter had been constrained by component shortages, he said.
“The boom in laptop demand caused a shortage in semiconductor packaging materials. This is a problem that is hard to solve in the short term,” he said.
Wong said that he anticipates a “strong rebound” by the second quarter.
Net profit last year jumped 35 percent to NT$9.36 billion (US$327.25 million) from a year earlier, benefiting from strong demand for laptops related to work-from-home and remote-learning trends due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$2.15 last year, an eight-year high.
Last year, consolidated revenue rose 7 percent year-on-year to NT$1.04 trillion, the first time Compal’s consolidated revenue has broken the trillion-dollar mark.
Compal’s consolidated fourth-quarter revenue was NT$334.0 billion, up 24.0 quarter-on-quarter and 24.8 percent year-on-year. Gross margin was 3.67 percent, up 0.1 percent year-on-year. Net profit was NT$4.58 billion, up 109.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 127.5 percent year-on-year. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter were NT$1.05.
About 35 percent of the world’s No. 2 contract laptop maker’s operations are non-PC businesses, including automotive electronics, 5G and medical electronics.
Having invested in electric vehicles (EVs) over the past eight or nine years, Compal counts major European and US automakers among its customers. Its EV-related business is growing at about 30 to 40 percent per year.
“The EV market is very demanding and it takes a long time for each product to mature,” Wong said. “It’s not instant gratification.”
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