Dec. 15, 2000

The production volume of Taiwan's top six notebook PC makers is expected to rise by 30% to 40% next year, the Taipei-based Economic Daily News reported.

The six companies - Quanta, Acer, Compal, Inventec, Arima and First International Computer - are posting a combined production volume of around 12 million notebook PCs this year.

Production could reach anywhere from 15.5 million to 17 million pieces in 2001, the report said. Taiwan's notebook PC makers have become relatively conservative in their forecasts As PC sales remain sluggish worldwide.

One analyst said the numbers look feasible. "That local manufacturers' estimated increase by 30 to 40% for next year sounds feasible to me", James Huang, analyst at the National Securities Corp. told the Taipei Times. He added that, as compared to the estimated growth of global notebook output in 2001 - about 15% to 20% - the forecast production increase by Taiwan is quite good.