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Intel Sees China PC Market Overtaking U.S. by 2010
 10/15/2003 HONG KONG (Reuters) - Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer chip maker, expects the fast-growing China market to surpass the United States as the top consumer of PCs by 2010, its Asia-Pacific chief said on Wednesday. China became Intel's number two market last year, trailing only the United States in terms of sales. "For PCs, China is now easily number two," John Antone, general manager for Intel's Asia-Pacific region, told Reuters in a phone interview. "We expect China to continue to grow to the point where it's equal or larger than the U.S. as a consumption market by 2010." China is expected to sell 13 million PCs this year, eclipsing Japan's 12.7 million units as the world's No. 2 PC market, according to research firm International Data Corp. The U.S. is likely to ship 51 million PCs this year, IDC analyst Kitty Fok said. In 2002, China sold 11.3 million PCs versus 12.5 million units in Japan and 47 million units in the U.S. market, IDC said. Antone made his remarks as Intel posted better-than-expected third-quarter results, including a near 150 percent jump in profit from a year earlier to US$1.7 billion and 20 percent growth in revenue to US$7.8 billion. The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, was a major growth driver, with regional sales accounting for 42 percent of Intel's total compared with 41 percent in the previous quarter and 38 percent a year earlier. Including Japan, Asia accounts for 51 percent of Intel's sales. Antone said he expects that share to continue to grow, driven primarily by markets outside Japan. "It's now a little bit above the midpoint and will probably continue to grow," he said of Asia's share of sales. "As that percentage goes up, sequential increases will likely slow down because it's gotten to be such a big part of our revenue. "Emerging market -- the biggest of which is China -- growth relative to mature markets is going to continue to be faster." In a nod to China's growing importance to the company, Intel said in August it would build a US$375 million chip test and assembly plant in the interior Chinese city of Chengdu -- its first such new plant since it announced plans to upgrade its Shanghai facility in 2001. Intel has invested US$500 million in the Shanghai plant, where it performs test and assembly work for flash memory chips, most commonly associated with mobile phones. Antone said construction of the first US$200 million phase of the Chengdu plant will begin early next year, with a focus on logic products commonly associated with the processors at the heart of personal computers. "The start of construction is still a few months off," he said. "The scheduled opening would be the end of 2005." News Archive | |
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