Lenovo's joint venture with Compal Electronics is expected to ship 15 million notebooks in 2014, up significantly from a year ago and the volume is expected to surpass 20 million units, increasing 30% on year. The rising shipments are expected to impact Taiwan's supply chain.
Lenovo is able to ship around 30 million notebooks each year and the joint venture will contribute about 50% to the overall volume in 2014 and surpass 60% in 2015.
With Lenovo continuing to raise its in-house production rate, Taiwan-based ODMs and component suppliers are expected to be impacted as Lenovo is trying to establish a China-based supply chain.
The joint venture is now supplying both Lenovo and ThinkPad branded notebooks. Wistron is being hurt the most by Lenovo's move, as the maker was originally the ODM partner for Lenovo's ThinkPad notebooks.
To minimize the impact, Wistron has turned its focus to non-notebook product lines such as server, handheld devices, recycling and sales services.
The joint venture shipped 560,000 notebooks in 2012 and 6.4 million notebooks in 2013. For 2014, Shipments of Lenovo branded notebooks will reach 8.3 million units and ThinkPad 6.7 million.
Lenovo is expected to ship 31.3 million notebooks for its fiscal 2014 with 21.3 million units being Lenovo branded models and 10 million units being ThinkPad; 34.4 million units for fiscal 2015 with Lenovo branded models accounting for 23.9 million units and ThinkPad 10.5 million units; and 37 million units for fiscal 2016 with Lenovo branded models accounting for 26 million units and ThinkPad 11 million.
Lenovo currently holds a 51% stake in the joint venture and Compal 49%, but at the beginning of 2014, Lenovo is reportedly considering to increase its shareholding, while Compal is also willing to sell its stake; however, no details have been released yet.
Source: Digitimes
