Despite a shorter February, most notebook (NB) ODMs saw shipment growth and expressed optimism for March. However, concluding a complete rebound in the notebook industry may be premature.
Except for Quanta, which saw flat growth in notebook shipments, Compal and Wistron witnessed growth in NB shipments in February. However, NB ODMs did not change their shipment forecasts for the first quarter, when overall shipments are expected to fall. Sources said no signs of improvement can be identified, and ODMs are more optimistic about the growth momentum in the second half of the year driven by AI PCs.
Quanta shipped 2.9 million NB units in February, the same as January. Its February revenue reached NTD842.93 billion, up 15.57% month-on-month and 1.13% year-on-year thanks to increasing ASP and higher shipments of other products like servers, with sales in the first two months declining by 9.33% from a year ago. The company expects overall first-quarter performance to be the same as the fourth quarter, adding that AI server shipments are still affected by GPU shortages, which are anticipated to improve after the second quarter.
Compal's NB shipments increased from 2.2 million units in January to 2.3 million in February. However, the company experienced a sequential sales decrease of 10.2% in February. Combined sales for the first two months amounted to NTD121.581 billion, reflecting a year-on-year decline of 6.26%.
Compal anticipates increasing shipments in March, but NB shipments in the first quarter are still expected to decline by 10-15% compared to the previous quarter. Growth is expected to be observed in each quarter after the second quarter, with slight growth expected for the whole year due to PC replacement demand and the boost from AI PCs. Compal's priority this year will be to focus on non-PC businesses to improve their profits.
Wistron shipped 1.4 million units in February, up from 1.3 million units in January. Desktop (DT) shipments in February remained flat at 700,000 units, while monitor shipments were 700,000 units, down from 800,000 units in January. Wistron pointed out that thanks to rising demands at the end of the quarter, NB, DT, and monitor shipments are expected to achieve double-digit growth compared to February.
However, Wistron did not revise upward its shipment forecast for the first quarter. It estimates that NB shipments in the first quarter will decline by double digits, while DT and monitor shipments will remain flat or slightly decrease compared to the previous quarter. Wistron's revenue in February was NTD81.097 billion, up 20.5% month-on-month and 30.66% year-on-year. revenue for the first two months reached NTD148.397 billion, up 26.79% year-on-year. Wistron's significantly stronger revenue than its peers lies in its GPU orders from three major chip customers. In addition to Nvidia, shipments of GPUs from AMD and Intel have begun increasing.
Inventec's NB shipments in February declined from 1.5 million units in January to 1.3 million units. Shipments are expected to return to the January level or even stronger in March. Inventec expects its 2023 NB shipments to rise by a single digit compared to 2023.
Inventec's server shipments in the first quarter also have the potential to perform better than initially expected, showing a single-digit growth in quarterly shipments. With the doubling of AI server shipments, the overall server shipments for the year are estimated to grow by double digits. Inventec's revenue in February was NTD36.651 billion, down 16.95% month-on-month but up 2.27% year-on-year, reaching a record high for the same period in history with cumulative revenue for the first two months at NTD80.779 billion, up 10.53% year-on-year.
Article translated by Jingyue Hsiao
