Aug 9, 2000

In a highly competetive market, Gigabyte Technology Co. was the only motherboard manufacturer in Taiwan to report historic high earnings in July, as most other counterparts suffered from the off-season in sales, industry sources said Tuesday.

In June, Gigabyte received OEM orders from IBM and registered the highest receipts for the year. Such sales continued growing in July, paving the way for Gigabyte to enjoy hectic sales accordingly.

Gigabyte estimates its motherboard sales reached between 850,000 and 900,000 in July, with revenue hitting NT$2.24 billion, up 52.38% from the same month in 1999. During the January-July period, the firm's revenue amounted to NT$11.57 billion, up 54.3% from the same period a year ago.

Asustek Computer Inc., claiming to be Taiwan's biggest motherboard manufacturer, redorded earnings NT$5.22 billion in July, a 17.38% increase from July 1999. In the first seven months, the firm's revenues totaled NT$37.77 billion, up 42.11% from the NT$26.57 billion registered in the same period of 1999.

Asustek sold only 950,000 motherboards in July because the European market was mostly on summer break. Sales of notebook PCs also dropped to below 30,000 last month.

Micro-Star International Co. also fared well in July, when the firm's revenue was NT$1.53 billion, up 52.4% from about NT$1 billion registered in the same month a year ago. Revenue totaled NT$11.78 billion in the first seven months, up 58.52% from the same period a year ago.

Regarding sales prospects in August, executives at Gigabyte believe they have the opportunity to sell one million motherboards this month. Asustek, Micro-Star, and other local counterparts are conservative about their motherboard sales as the market demand in Europe and the U.S. is still weak, industry sources indicated.