After its previous shortage of the KT333 chipsets, VIA Technologies has reportedly experienced tight supply again for its new KT400. The chipset supplier recently confirmed the news, admitting that the tight supply may last through October and be gradually resolved next month.
The current supply/demand imbalance was due to the lack of material inventory, VIA said, which it has been keeping at a relatively low level given the unclear business outlook in the market.
As motherboard shipments enter their peak season in the fourth quarter, demand for chipsets has been rising accordingly. Earlier, VIA had suffered a shortage of its KT333 chipsets due to the insufficient material inventory. Facing the strong demand, the company thus decided to release remarked KT400 products to fill up the demand/supply gap. However, given that the KT400 only recently entered mass production, the overall material stocks have not been enough to completely fulfill the orders.
Still, with the increasing chipset shipments, VIA predicted that its October revenues will rise further to NT$2.32 billion from NT$2.11 billion in September, reaching a new high for the last eight months. However, as motherboard industry meets the end of the annual high season in November, the chipset supplier forecasts that its November sales will drop to the September level again.
Given that the company on October 1 officially spun off its network chip division as an independent subsidiary, VIA Network Solution (VNS), VIA’s projected sales growth this month will come mostly from its chipset and processor lines.
Article translated by Christy Lee and edited by Richard So
