Taiwan's PC Makers Report Dismal Sales in First Half
July 11, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwan's PC market reported a much weaker than expected performance for the first half of the year.
IT retailers' sales fell significantly from a year earlier, and the relative positions of the self-assembly and brand-name industries changed significantly.
Most IT companies saw negative growth in the PC deliveries in the first half. In particular, the PC retailers estimated a drop of 30 percent to 40 percent in sales of their outlets in central and southern Taiwan, where the jobless rate is surging.
The Market Information Center (MIC) of the Institute for Information Industry (III) forecast that Taiwan would deliver around 1.31 million units of desktop PCs this year, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, and that laptop PC sales would rise 28 percent this year to 380,000 units.
That forecast now seems premature. After experiencing a business downturn and negative sales growth in the first half of the year, Synnex Technology International Corp. and Acer Sertek Inc., Taiwan's two leading IT retailers, thought that Taiwan's PC market would deliver a flat performance at best this year. NOVA Computer City, Taiwan's other heavyweight IT distributor, with more than 500 outlets throughout Taiwan, agreed with that view, as its sales fell at least 30 percent in central and southern Taiwan, and its sales in northern Taiwan declined around 20 percent in the first half.
Hit by the economic slowdown, Acer Sertek reported sales of NT$9.564 billion for the first half of the year, down 17 percent year-on-year. Its PC deliveries amounted to just over 50,000 units, and its notebook computer deliveries totaled 36,000 units for the same period. Separately, the company won the PC auction of Central Trust of China, which brought Acer Sertek a PC order of 6,000 units. Already, Acer Sertek has delivered about 2,000 units.
Leo System Inc. delivered around 7,000 units of notebook PCs in the first half, down more than 10 percent year-on-year. Disappointed by the failure in the auction market, and alarmed by the languishing retail market, Leo reported a drop of more than 40 percent in sales for the first half, dashing hopes of turning around and delaying its prospects of achieving profit targets.
Genuine C&C Inc. estimated its June sales at NT$633 million, and year-to-June sales at NT$3.97 billion, down 6 percent year-on-year. The company admitted that it would be difficult to reach its sales target of NT$10 billion this year.
Unitek Electronics Co., Ltd. predicted first half sales of NT$3.04 billion, higher than the NT$2.74 billion seen in the same period last year. The company attributed its bright performance during a period of economic slowdown to better-than-expected exports of handheld products.
Synnex said its year-to-June sales would reach NT$20.656 billion, down 7.6 percent year-on-year. The decline in the company's sales has been milder than the declines experienced by rival companies. The company sold a total of 650,000 units of desktop PCs last year, and believes that its desktop PC sales would have no problem exceeding 300,000 units in the first half.
Due to its quick response to changing market sentiment, the self-assembly PC market has become more dynamic than the brand-name market.
(NT$34.54 = US$1)
(Commercial Times, Taiwan) |
