Industrial PC and NB Makers Have a Good March

China Economic News (CENS) reports that many of Taiwans Industrial PC (IPC) manufacturers have done well in March and are looking forward to good sales for the remainder of the year. CENS reports:

With increasing orders from clients, Taiwan`s makers of industrial computers have posted solid sales results for the first quarter of this year and are expected to maintain that performance in the second quarter.

DFI received orders from IBM and many Japanese customers. WinMate Communication has capitalized on increased from Europe for industrial LCD and also gambling machines. IBASE has also benefitted from demand for "gambling machines, motherboards and network security appliances." Meanwhile Portwell has increased sales of their POS machines and European demand for medical products has benefited AAEON.

Good news for me however is (ICP Electronics is my comapany's parent):

Incidentally, ICP Electronics Inc. is scheduled to complete construction of its eight new production lines in Shanghai between April and May and will see its sales significantly grow in the second quarter.

CENS also reports that NB makers also had a stellar March:

Taiwan`s leading contract manufacturers of notebook computers, including Quanta Computer Inc. and Wistron Corp., saw booming sales in March. Domestic institutional investors predicted domestic NB contract manufacturing industry will see shipments continue to grow at the pace of 10% up to 15% year-on-year in the second quarter of this year.

CENS added:

Thanks to the increased orders from such big brands as Apple, Hewlett Packard and Toshiba, Quanta is expected to see annual shipments grow 19% up to 25% year-on-year this year.

Wistron has also done well. CENS says:

Thanks to the injection of orders from such big clients as Acer, Hewlett Packard and Dell Computer, Wistron Corp. saw shipments of PCs grow at a pace faster than anticipated in the first quarter.

Inventec has also done very well with a "3.089% year-on-year and up 5.18% from the preceding month."

So hi-tech Taiwan seems to be going from strength to strentgh, even in this economic slow down. We will see how far they can run. However, it should be noted that Taiwan may be becoming less dependent on sales to the US as new markets have opened up. Perhaps these new markets are driving sales. Whatever is driving sales, right now Taiwan's big players are doing well.

Article 1: Taiwan`s Industrial Computer Makers Post Solid Sales Performance in Q2
Article 2: Taiwan`s Contract NB PC makers Rake in Booming Sales in March

Taiwan EMS Companies Having a Good Year

China Economic News (CENS) reports Hon Hai Precision Technology topped NTD100 billion reaching NTD104 billions. CENS reports:

Hon Hai Precision saw March sales grow 18.8% year-on-year and up 12.7% from the preceding month, achieving the sixth-highest monthly sales in history. The company scored NT$301.8 billion (US$9.89 billion) in cumulative sales in the first quarter of this year, up 22.3% year-on-year but down 27.1% from a historic high in the fourth quarter of last year.

Meanwhile CENS also reports that both Wistron and Inventec have also done well in Q1. CENS says:

Wistron Corporation, one of Taiwan`s leading manufacturers of notebook computers, registered NT$34.268 billion (US$1.12 billion at US$1:NT$30.5) in sales in March, up 63.5% year-on-year and up 41.6% from the preceding month, hitting a historic monthly high.

CENS continued:

Inventec Corp., another large-sized NB manufacturer, registered NT$21.8 billion (US$714.75 million) in March sales, up 17% from the preceding month`s NT$20.75 billion (US$680.32 million) and representing a slight growth of 3% from a year earlier.

The company scored NT$66 billion (US$2.16 billion) in sales in the first quarter of this year and expects to see a 20% year-on-year growth in sales in the second quarter. The optimistic projection for the second quarter is based on the shipment growth in business-type and large-sized NBs.

Article 1: Hon Hai Saw Monthly Sales Rebound NT$100 B. in March
Article 2: Wistron Achieves Highest-ever Sales in March)

Overview of Taiwan Semiconductor Industry

I was just reading the 2007 Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Overview issued by The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA). The overview takes a look at the Taiwan semiconductor industry in 2006. Slightly dated but still interesting. Here is a snippet from the report:

Semiconductor market of Asia, the fastest-growing area, reached US$116.5 billion in 2006, a 12.7% increase from 2005. Taiwan semiconductor industry grew 24.6% in 2006, outpaced the worldwide average of 8.9% due to the dramatic growth of 30.5% in Taiwan manufacturing sector, with 17.2% increase in foundry and 52.8% increase in DRAM.

Taiwan IC revenue (including design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing) totaled NT$1,393.3 billion, a 24.6% growth from 2005, with NT$323.4 billion in design, a 13.5% increase, NT$766.7 billion in manufacturing, a 30.5% up, NT$210.8 billion in packaging, an 18.4% up, and NT$92.4 billion in testing, a 36.9% rise.

In 2006, Taiwan IC product revenue reached NT$652.3 billion (Table 1), a 30.7% increase from 2005. Memory products comprised 52.2%, up from the 48% of 2005 due to the stabilized price. Information applications, comprising 59.7% (59.2% in 2005), remained the largest application area. Consumer applications comprised 27.8% (29.1% in 2005), and communication ICs accounted for 11.4% (10.5% in 2005).

As soon as TSIA release the 2008 version the reviews 2007, I will let you know.