Aaron Lee, Taipei; Adam Hwang

 

Acer originally expected its notebook shipments to remain flat in the fourth quarter of 2011, or rise by up to 5% from the preceding quarter, but now has lowered the fourth-quarter estimate to a decrease by 5-10% on quarter due to short supply of hard disk drives (HDDs) due to the flooding in Thailand, according to company corporate president Jim Wong at an October 28 investors conference.

The shortages have caused an increase in HDD prices of 5-20% and Acer has decided to hike prices for its notebooks in November to reflect its increased costs, Wong indicated. Based on a lead time of about two months, the global supply of HDDs will be 25% short of demand from mid-December 2011 to February 2012, according to Taiwan-based notebook ODMs.

Acer has decreased overall inventory level at its global channels to below six weeks and will further reduce the level by 10% in the fourth quarter of 2011, Wong pointed out. Acer expects to ship 250,000-300,000 ultrabooks in the fourth quarter, Wong said. The company expects its total shipments of notebooks in 2012 to increase by 10% on year, with ultrabook models to account for 25-30% of the volume, Wong indicated.

Acer recorded consolidated revenues of NT$117.891 billion (US$4.07 billion), gross margin of 8.96%, net operating loss of NT$1.32 billion, net loss of NT$1.092 billion and net loss per share of NT$0.43 for the third quarter of 2011.

Of sales revenues for the third quarter, 40% came from Europe/Africa/the Middle East, 24% from North and South America, 14% from China, 3% from Taiwan and 19% from other Asia Pacific countries. In terms of product lines, notebooks accounted for 64% of the revenues, followed by desktops with 17%, monitors 9%, and others 10%.