First-tier mobo makers broke sales and shipment records in October

Fueled by seasonal demand, Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology and Micro-Star International (MSI) reported record-breaking sales and shipment performances in October, with figures much higher than the market had expected.

Another first-tier maker Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), however, did not share the same sales growth as its industry counterparts. Posting NT$5.282 billion for its October revenues, the company in fact suffered a slight month-on-month sales decrease of 3.2%, reportedly due to delayed shipments from its notebook OEM clients.

Among the three top-tier makers that already posted their financial figures, Asustek enjoyed the second-highest records in both its monthly motherboard shipments and revenues contributed by its Taiwan operations in October. The company also saw record-breaking performances in its notebook and graphics card shipments, which exceeded 110,000 and 510,000 units, respectively.

For last month, Asustek’s revenues from its China holding company came in lower than September at NT$4.639 billion, suggesting that its shipments of PlayStation 2 (PS2) game consoles may have been lower than expected or postponed.

Gigabyte reported record sales in October. The company did not release detailed shipment figures, but market analysts estimated that the board maker shipped nearly 1.4 million motherboards and 130,000-140,000 graphics cards last month, with the latter being boosted by rising deliveries of high-end products.

MSI saw record-breaking sales and new highs in motherboard and graphics card shipments. Given the strong performance, the company predicted that its October gross margin would be able to return to last year’s level of 14.7%.

Source: companies, compiled by DigiTimes, November 2002.
*China holding company and Taiwan revenues.
**Market estimates.

Article translated by Christy Lee and edited by Richard So