After two years of demand outbreak caused by the epidemic, the PC market has entered a state of weak demand this year. According to the business times, when Acer chairman and CEO chenjunsheng attended the shareholders' meeting on June 9, he said frankly that the overall PC market has turned over, with the shortage of IC parts and components and the problem of long and short materials continuously alleviated. There has been a phenomenon of oversupply, and the visibility of market conditions in the second half of the year is also low.
Chenjunsheng said that the shortage of materials caused by insufficient IC component capacity in the past has been alleviated since the second half of last year, and has been greatly improved by the first quarter of this year. However, the temporary shortage of materials in the supply chain caused by the closure and control implemented by the Chinese Mainland has gradually become normal with the release of the closure. Although the removal rate of saigang port is still slow, the previously soaring freight rates continue to fall. After the front-line inventory gradually returned to normal, the reversal of market supply and demand became more obvious.
The inventory level of most downstream terminal manufacturers continued to rise in the first quarter of this year after they were piled up to high-end at the end of last year. From the perspective of Acer and ASUS, the total inventory of Acer reached about 63.8 billion yuan and ASUS nearly 193.4 billion yuan by the end of the first quarter. From the perspective of the proportion of inventory in its overall assets, Acer exceeded 30% for the first time and ASUS approached 40%, both of which are their historical peaks.
Chenjunsheng said that Acer's inventory is still relatively low compared with that of its peers. For the parts and components in the inventory, Acer has also paid close attention to them since the beginning of this year, controlled the import and export of materials, and began to eliminate them from the first quarter. Be careful not to turn the inventory into a pit.
In terms of inventory level, chenjunsheng took Europe as an example. By the end of the first quarter, his inventory had risen to about 8 weeks, which was certainly higher than that during the epidemic in the past two years, but there was little difference compared with the 7.8 weeks before the epidemic in the first quarter of 2019.
In the face of the impact of inflation and war, and the negative impact of the United States' efforts to open up inflation, raise interest rates and shrink the table on the market consumption demand, chenjunsheng pointed out that the demand will continue to shift to necessities, and the cycle of products such as PCs may be lengthened. Chenjunsheng stressed that Acer would do its best to prepare for uncertain market changes and strive to stabilize its operating performance.
Previously, suzifeng, CEO of AMD, pointed out that after two years of very strong PC market, the development speed of personal computers (PCS) will slow down this year.
Li Yichang, vice president of Asustek global and general manager of personal computer business division, also said that the demand of personal PC market in Europe, Chinese Mainland and the United States all showed signs of decline. This year, the overall PC market may begin to see oversupply.
In addition, as part of a series of cost cutting measures, Intel has frozen the recruitment of PC desktop and notebook chip departments. There are various signs that the overall PC market demand will slow down this year, or show a shrinking trend. (proofread /arden)