Taiwan's Quanta Q2 shipments beat forecast by 4 pct

TAIPEI, July 8 (Reuters) - Quanta Computer (2382.TW), the world's largest contract laptop PC maker, exceeded its second-quarter shipments forecast by 4 percent on new orders from PC brands ahead of the peak holiday season.

Quanta spokeswoman Carol Hsu on Wednesday said the company shipped 3.3 million laptops in June and a total of 7.9 million units in the April-June quarter, representing sequential growth of about 14.5 percent.

A key supplier to brands such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N), Dell (DELL.O) and Apple (AAPL.O), the company had previously said shipments in the second quarter would be about 10 percent higher than the 6.9 million units it shipped in the first quarter.

Hsu declined to provide a new forecast for the current quarter, but said it stuck by its previous outlook for growth equal with or faster than the overall industry.

Quanta's shares closed 0.85 percent lower on Wednesday, worse than the 0.70 percent decline on the benchmark TAIEX share index .

Analysts said they expected the current uptick in orders to continue in the second half of the year, with shipment growth at about 30-40 percent in the current six months.

"The second half of the year is traditionally busier because of the back-to-school and holiday seasons, so we should see orders climbing, although that of course really depends which way the economy goes," said Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Calvin Huang.

Smaller rival Compal (2324.TW), which some analysts are betting on to overtake Quanta as the world's largest contract laptop maker by shipments, will release its June sales and shipment figures on Thursday. (Reporting by Kelvin Soh)