subscribe

Taiwan’s Notebook Manufacturers Report Slow February

Taiwan’s major notebook manufacturers and ODMs reported sequential sales declines in February, a traditionally slow month because of fewer working days and the Chinese New Year.

Acer reported a 9% month on month and 15.6% year on year fall in sales last month to NT$20.6 billion ($651.5 million), bringing sales so far this year to NT$43.3 billion ($1.3 billion), down 5.6% compared with the same time last year.

Asustek Computer saw sales dip 0.5% sequentially and 5% year on year to NT$34.8 billion ($1.1 billion), bringing sales for the first two months of 2015 to NT$69.7 billion ($2.2 billion), 2.7% lower than the same period of 2014. The company said that currency depreciation in Russia, Brazil and Europe is leading to weakening shipments to those markets but Asustek expects revenue in March to grow significantly.

Compal‘s sales fell 20.6% from January to NT$54.6 billion ($1.7 billion), though this was a 10.3% improvement on February 2014. Sales so far this year were 19.8% higher YoY at NT$123.3 billion ($3.9 billion). Compal’s notebook shipments in Q1 are expected to drop 16-20% sequentially and most of the company’s revenue will be derived from Compal’s mobile device business.

Inventec was impacted by weak notebook demand which caused sales to dip 14.2% MoM and 23.6% YoY to NT$25.6 billion ($809.7 million).

Pegatron Technology has recently received a boost in iPhone assembly orders from Apple, though this was not enough to stop its sales decreasing 41.3% sequentially to NT$69.3 billion ($2.2 billion). However, this was 18.5% higher than February of last year and brought sales to NT$187.3 billion ($5.9 billion), 25% ahead of the first two months of 2014.

Quanta Computer‘s February sales were down 21.5% MoM and 20.6% YoY at NT$55 billion ($1.7 billion). The company’s sales in the first two months of the year were 11.5% lower at NT$125.1 billion ($3.9 billion).

Wistron reported sales of NT$44.9 billion ($1.4 billion), down 8.9% from January but up 26% from February 2014. Cumulative sales so far this year reached NT$99.2 billion ($3.1 billion), up 26.2%. The company said that it expects its performance to improve in March, though notebook shipments are expected to drop 15-20% in the first quarter, while mobile device shipments will suffer a 15% shipment decline.

Wistron has also released its fourth quarter and full year results, posting a net profit in Q4 of NT$579 million ($18.3 million) on turnover of NT$174.9 billion ($5.5 billion). For the year, Wistron reported a net profit of NT$3.6 billion ($113.8 million) on turnover of NT$592.3 billion ($18.7 billion).