Global notebook computer shipments are expected to slide 9.4 percent annually this year, as PC vendors face price hikes for CPUs and memory chips, which elevate manufacturing costs, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report on Monday.
The outlook in shipments is a steeper decline than the 5.4 percent reduction estimated by TrendForce previously amid unresolved chip supply bottlenecks and elusive brand strategies, the Taipei-based research house said.
As PC vendors make slim margins, rising costs of components are a substantial financial burden, TrendForce said.
Photo: Reuters
“Memorychip prices continue to be high, and unstable CPU supplies are adding uncertainty to the notebook computer market in the short term,” the report said.
“To cope with supply-demand dynamics of key components, PC brands might adjust their cost [management], inventory levels and product strategies,” it said. “Those factors combined with consumers’ acceptance of pricier [notebook computers] are crucial factors affecting the market situation in the second half of this year.”
This quarter, notebook computer shipments worldwide are expected to slump 14.8 percent sequentially, possibly falling short of PC vendors’ expectations, TrendForce said.
The researcher attributed mounting costs to CPU supply constraints and a price uptrend of other key components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), batteries and power management chips.
Intel Corp has raised CPU prices used in entry-level models due to a supply shortage, which is unlikely to ease through March, while the company’s expected increase in CPU supply would allow global notebook computer shipments to regain quarterly growth in the second quarter, TrendForce said.
The price hikes in CPUs are critical to PC vendors, given that CPUs account for 15 to 30 percent of a notebook computer’s bill of materials (BOM), the report said.
A majority of entry-level and mainstream models are equipped with Intel’s CPUs, it said.
PC vendors would have to adjust their product lineups and reschedule shipments to cope with higher CPU costs, it added.
Additionally, solid state drive (SSD) storage prices and PC DRAM chips are expected to soar more than 70 percent and 80 percent respectively this quarter from the previous quarter, the report said.
PC vendors stepped up notebook computer shipments in the fourth quarter last year, as they have been grappling with memorychip price surges since the second half of last year, it said.
As PC vendors are still unable to source adequate memory chips this quarter, their production schedules and shipment timelines have been disrupted, it added.
The higher costs of PCBs are due to an increase in design complexity and rising copper prices, TrendForce said.
PC vendors are facing a structural shift in PCB costs, as they are required to equip mid-to-high-range notebook computers with higher-quality motherboards to align with specification upgrades, it said.
Specification upgrades are expected to drive higher BOM costs due to greater demand for batteries and power management chips, TrendForce said.
The introduction of new-generation Wi-Fi 7 and USB chips would also push costs of components up, it added.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
RSS