Contract laptop makers Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) last month reported noticeably muted sales, attributing the trend to unresolved component shortages and logistics woes.
Quanta, the world’s biggest contract notebook computer maker, yesterday posted consolidated revenue of NT$84.72 billion (US$3.05 billion) for last month, down 10 percent month-on-month and 20.1 percent year-on-year.
The company shipped 5.5 million notebook computers, down 6.8 percent month-on-month and 12.7 percent year-on-year, a new monthly low for this year.
Photo: Screen grab from Web site of Quanta Computer Inc
Cumulative revenue for the first eight months of this year was NT$708.71 billion, up 4.9 percent from NT$675.45 billion in the same period last year.
At its last investors’ conference, the company gave a “conservative” outlook, forecasting a 10 percent quarterly drop in shipments due to supply chain and logistics difficulties.
Its goal is to ship 18.3 million laptop computers this year, the same number as last year, it said.
With the traditional high season for the electronics industry coming up, the company said it expects supply chain issues to “remain tense” for at least seven to eight months, affecting its business despite healthy demand.
Meanwhile, Compal yesterday said that consolidated revenue fell 5.2 percent month-on-month to NT$102.39 billion last month, up 22 percent from August last year.
Consolidated revenue in the first eight months jumped 19.7 percent annually to NT$741.36 billion from NT$619.42 billion.
Compal last month shipped 4.7 million laptops, down 4.08 percent month-on-month, but up 34.28 percent year-on-year.
For the first eight months, the company shipped 28.42 percent more laptops, or 35.7 million units.
Although Compal also told investors that it is affected by supply chain shortages and logistics issues, it hopes to ship 10 percent more laptops during this quarter, compared with last quarter.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day