[The Exiled]

Tight supply of Intel processors unlikely to ease until 2H19

The ongoing tight supply of Intel's processors is unlikely to ease until the second half of 2019 and will undermine worldwide notebook shipments during the upcoming peak season, according to Martin Wong, president and CEO of Compal Electronics. Wong noted that so far Intel has not yet given its downstream partners a clear schedule on when the shortages can be resolved. In response to the CPU shortages, Intel noted that it has been cooperating closely with its partners to manage their extra orders and its supply priority will be given to Xeon and Core series processors including the latest eighth-generation U and Y series. Acer recently noted that the shortages are not only affecting certain individual brands, but the notebook market as a whole. Wistron originally expected its notebook shipments to grow 5-10% sequentially in the third quarter, but has already cut the forecast to 5% or less. Inventec expects its third-quarter shipments to rise by a single-digit percentage sequentially and stay at the same level in the fourth quarter, while Quanta also expects a single-digit percentage sequential growth for the third quarter shipments, but was unable to give an estimate on its fourth-quarter performance. However, some market watchers are still optimistic about the situation and expect the problem to improve in the first quarter of 2019.

Izvor: DigiTimes