Posted on Tuesday, August 21 2012 @ 21:45 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Sources from the upstream supply chain
told DigiTimes that that Asustek has raised its motherboard outsourcing volume to Taiwan-based Global Brands Manufacture (GBM) to about one million units per month, close to half of Asustek's motherboard shipments.
Asustek is expected to ship 23-25 million motherboards in 2012 and in addition to major partner GBM, the company is also outsourcing its orders to Cal-comp as well as 2-3 smaller makers.
Currently, GBM's plants in Southern China supply about 600,000 motherboards to Asustek each month, while the maker's plants in Eastern China supply 400,000 units. Cal-comp's plants in Eastern China also supply about 400,000 motherboards to Asustek.
Since Asustek was able to achieve cheaper quotes from the two partners, compared to its previous major partner Pegatron Technology, the sources believe Asustek's strategy should help the company maintain its gross margin and still be able to start a price war to compete against its competitors.
