Oct 28, 2001

Under fast growing demand along with increasingly keen market competition, the top two notebook PC manufacturers in Taiwan are expected to occupy half of the domestic production volume next year, on of the makers, Compal, predicted.

Compal is currently the second largest PC maker in Taiwan, next to Quanta.

According to Compal`s projection, Taiwan's production volume of NB PCs next year will occupy 55% of the global total, and 50% of Taiwan's output will come from the top two makers, Quanta and Compal. In 2002, Quanta is expected to deliver 4 - 4.5 million units, while Compal's sales volume is estimated at 3.5 million pieces. For most of the other main Taiwan makers, sales volumes next year will b e smaller than 1.5 million units, Compal told the press.

However, Wistron Corp., a major Taiwan NB PC producer, a spin-off from Acer Inc., disagreed with Compal's precition of the market oocupation pattern. Wistron estimates its sales at 1.8 million units for this year, while expected large OEM orders from IBM and Dell as well as potential Japanes clients would boost the delivery volume to possibly 2.5 million sets.

On the other hand, Compal expects Japanese IDMs ( integrated device manufacturers ) to place more OEM orders with Taiwan makers, because Taiwan manufacturers have increased their competitiveness by setting up major production lines in China to minimize costs.

In related news, Taiwan notebook maker Clevo Computer Co. announced that its new factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province of China is scheduled to be completed early next year.

Clevo said that the new factory would help it win ODM business once the Taiwan government lifts a ban on investment in high-tech production in the mainland. Production capacity of the new China plant would be about 100,000 to 250,000 units per month. Clevo's annual production volume at the moment ranks the company around 10th among local competitors.

Clevo originally expected to ship about 400,000 notebook PCs this year but recently lowered the goal to 350,000 units due to the cooling global economy. Clevo is the first Taiwan notebook maker of that size to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.