Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) last week reported strong sales for last month thanks to demand for notebook computers spurred by teleworking and distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The companies’ operations have continued to improve since last year, as the pandemic has resulted in lifestyle changes, with remote and video communication becoming essential and prompting companies to speed up digital transformation, while PCs have become an indispensable tool in people’s daily lives.
Acer’s consolidated sales reached NT$24.81 billion (US$897.9 million), up 22.9 percent year-on-year, but down 0.6 percent month-on-month, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that last month’s figure was the highest for the period in seven years.
Photo: CNA
The company attributed the annual increase to Chromebooks for distance learning, whose sales increased 30.1 percent year-on-year, and gaming products for home-bound consumers, which posted an annual sales increase of 15.3 percent.
For the first five months of this year, sales totaled NT$121.31 billion, up 36.6 percent from a year earlier, Acer said.
As orders for PCs have continued to exceed its supply, Acer said it would work closely with supply chains, as component supply remains a key factor to its shipments this year.
Asustek’s sales increased 40.36 percent year-on-year and 5.7 percent month-on-month to NT$38.58 billion last month, the highest May sales figure in the company’s history, it reported on Wednesday.
Cumulative sales in the first five months reached NT$183.19 billion, up 66.16 percent from a year earlier and also the highest for the same period, it said.
The companies’ sales were also boosted by a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert announced on May 19, which has led to strong pandemic-related demand, especially for notebook computers and Chromebooks, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) analyst Calvin Wei (魏建發) wrote in a note on Thursday.
“Asustek and Acer are the major beneficiaries of the strong work-from-home demand, given Asustek’s higher sales exposure to notebook computer business versus its peers, and Acer’s sales contribution of 10-15 percent comes from the domestic market,” Wei wrote.
Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) also posted record-high sales of NT$15.67 billion for last month, up 43.2 percent year-on-year and 4 percent month-on-month, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
MSI’s sales in the first five months grew 57.3 percent year-on-year to NT$78.76 billion, it said.
“With more than 60 percent sales contribution from gaming products, MSI has been the major beneficiary of the gaming uptrend,” Wei said.
However, the company has benefited mildly from the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan, given its sales exposure of only 2 to 3 percent to the domestic market, he said.
STEADY: Prices are to rebound following inventory rebuilding demand, TrendForce said, with Samsung Electronics Co further trimming capacity as it slashes DDR4 lines The contract prices of DRAM chips are to rise by as much as 18 percent sequentially this quarter — the first price upticks in about eight quarters — driven mainly by inventory rebuilding demand for DRAM chips used in mobile devices and PCs, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) projected yesterday. The price rebound is led by a quarterly increase of mobile DRAM chips, which are to climb between 13 percent and 18 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, which has not been seen since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Taipei-based market researcher predicted. Likewise, the price of mainstream PC DDR4 DRAM is expected to bounce
SOLID FOUNDATION: Given its decades of expertise in megatronics, manufacturing and robotics, Japan has the wherewithal to create its own AI, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp plans to help build an artificial intelligence (AI) tech-related ecosystem in Japan to meet demand in a country eager to gain an edge in this emerging technology. The US company will seek to partner with Japanese research organizations, companies and start-ups to build factories for AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday during opening remarks in a meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura. The company is to set up an AI research laboratory, and invest in local start-ups and educate the public on using AI, Huang said. Huang earlier this week met with Japanese Prime
A Hong Kong court postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) winding-up petition scheduled for yesterday until Jan. 29. Evergrande is trying to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure more than US$300 billion in debt to stave off liquidation. The company’s lawyer told the court it was requesting an adjournment to “refine” its new debt restructuring plan. The Hong Kong High Court has postponed the hearing over Evergrande’s potential liquidation several times. Judge Linda Chan (陳靜芬) had said in October that yesterday’s hearing would be the last before a decision is handed down. Chan
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is among a field of “very formidable” competitors to Nvidia Corp in the race to produce the best artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday. Huawei, Intel Corp and an expanding group of semiconductor start-ups pose a stiff challenge to Nvidia’s dominant position in the market for AI accelerators, Huang told reporters in Singapore. Shenzhen-based Huawei has grown into China’s chip tech champion and returned to the spotlight this year with an advanced made-in-China smartphone processor. “We have a lot of competitors, in China and outside China,” Huang said. “Most of our competitors
RSS