Notebook ODMs Inventec and Wistron saw their shipments grow substantially in February 2021 compared to a year earlier, but decrease sequentially.
Both ODMs shipped 1.5 million notebooks in February with Wistron experiencing an on-month decline of 11% and an on-year increase of 76%, and Inventec a sequential drop of 6.25% and an on-year rise of 275%.
The two ODMs expect their shipments in March to pick up from February and outperform those in January.
Wistron noted its February shipments were undermined by fewer working hours in the month because of the Lunar New Year holidays and shipments in March will resume growth.
Wistron expects a double-digit sequential decline in first-quarter 2021 shipments, but the scale will be smaller than those of the previous years. Wistron believes its shipment will have a chance to grow quarter by quarter in 2021 with annual volumes in 2021 to also increase from 2020's 20.35 million units.
Inventec's shipments in February were better than expected thanks mainly to stable supply of components. Inventec currently has clear order visibility for the first half, but component shortages remain the biggest uncertainty to its shipments.
With Intel set to begin shipping its Tiger Lake processors in March, the sources expect brand vendors to start deploying notebooks using the new CPUs and boost ODMs' shipments. Intel will also begin distributing its Ice Lake processors for servers in the month, which should also boost ODMs' server shipments in the month.
Inventec Appliances' smart device shipments are expected to stay flat on year in 2021 after its orders for true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds from a client were shifted to a Chinese competitor, resulting in an around 50% on-year decline in the shipments in 2020, according to industry sources.
Inventec Appliance is now pushing into the medical care device segment and has landed orders from new clients for the business recently, the sources said.
Wistron has reported consolidated revenues of NT$49.48 billion (US$1.73 billion) for February, up 10.29% on year with the amount for the first two months in 2021 reaching NT$108.05 billion, up 2.56% on year.
Inventec saw February consolidated revenues rise 80.83% on year to arrive at NT$31.47 billion with the amount for the first two months in 2021 coming to NT$70.85 billion, up 51.45% on year.
Wistron and Inventec saw small on-month shipment declines in February
Photo: Digitimes file photo
