Chassis maker Ju Teng International has seen its shipments for notebooks ramp up, with shipment growth expected to stay robust through the third quarter.
Ju Teng is currently the globally largest plastic chassis supplier for notebooks but has seen related shipments dropping annually over the past few years as the notebook market has already reached maturity.
At the moment, chassis for notebooks, 2-in-1 devices and tablets provide the key incomes for Ju Teng, which in 2019 saw its first on-year revenue growth since 2012, thanks to PC replacement demand from the enterprise sector triggered by Microsoft ending support on Windows 7, according company chairman Li-Yu Cheng.
Ju Teng originally expected its chassis shipments to slide in 2020 with the enterprise sector's replacement demand reaching an end, but the coronavirus outbreak has significantly boosted sales of notebooks for the first half amid coronavirus lockdowns.
With the Chinese currency depreciating, Ju Teng, which runs production primarily in China, saw its production costs significantly lower from the past few years in 2019 and achieved a gross margin of 12.83% in the year, up from 2018's 11.91%.
Mitac Precision Technology (MPT), a plastic chassis manufacturing affiliate of the Mitac Group,nessed April revenues grow 19.7% on month and 20.97% on year to come to NT$2.58 billion (US$85.58 million).
Aside from growth in the ruggedized PC business, the company's component business - mainly for plastic chassis - is another major revenue growth driver.
Other than plastic chassis, Ju Teng has also been expanding production for metal ones and expects its shipments ratio for metal and plastic chassis to reach 55:45 in 2020.
On the other hand, MPT has devoted its effort to developing hybrid material plastic chassis specifically fiberglass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic chassis. MPT has also halved the costs of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic chassis, allowing the chassis to be competitive against aluminum-alloy ones in cost-performance ratio.
Chassis makers enjoy rising orders for notebooks
Photo: Digitimes file photo
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
