Demand in the third quarter remained strong, with network interface card (NIC) shipments hitting a record and posting the highest growth since 2008 to reach 56.84 million units, amid robust sales in the notebook market.
Taiwan shipped 32.8 million notebooks in the second quarter of 2009, up 18.8% sequentially and 12.8% from the same period one year earlier, as channel vendors replenished their PC inventory to meet recovering demand in the market. The growth came despite tight supply of notebook components such as panels, optical drives, hard drives and some related ICs.
Taiwan shipped 14.8 million optical disc drives (ODDs) in the second quarter of 2009, up 7.8% sequentially, as market demand for PCs started to recover and triggered clients such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer to increase their order volumes. However, shipments still dropped 23.0% on year.
Shipments of both network interface cards (NICs) and wireless routers (WRs) increased sequentially in the second quarter, as retailers started replenish their inventories. Growth momentum was also coming from delivery of orders that had been delayed from the first quarter. Component and chip shortages resulted in delayed shipments in the first quarter, but the shortages improved in the second quarter.
Shipments of Taiwan handsets rebounded in the second quarter of 2009 after two quarters of sequential declines, as clients started replenishing their inventories. But second-quarter shipments still declined almost 45% on year, and Taiwan makers accounted for 5.5% of total handset shipments worldwide.
Taiwan shipped 8.66 million digital still cameras (DSCs) in the second quarter of 2009, up 58.1% sequentially but down 22.4% from the same period one year earlier. Increased demand in the end market prompted clients to refill their inventories.
Taiwan shipped 13.7 million optical disc drives (ODDs) in the first quarter of 2009, down 16.5% sequentially and 28.6% from the same period one year earlier.
Excess digital camera inventory persisted worldwide in the first quarter of 2009. The combination of depressed demand and oversupply caused Taiwan's digital still camera (DSC) shipments to drop 41% sequentially and 38% on year to below six million units in the first quarter V a decline worse than previously predicted.
Taiwan saw its biggest handset shipment decline ever in the first quarter of 2009 because of significant drops in orders from major clients Motorola and Sony Ericsson.
Taiwan shipped 27.4 million notebook and netbook PCs in the first quarter of 2009, down 19.6% sequentially but up 1.3% from the same period one year earlier.
