Taiwan's Compal sees Q3 laptop shipments up 20 pct

TAIPEI, June 5 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Compal (2324.TW), the world's second largest contract laptop PC maker, said on Thursday it expects shipments in the third quarter to grow 20 percent from the previous quarter as demand for notebooks remain healthy.

Compal Electronics spokesman Chang Chih-ming confirmed a local newspaper report that quoted Ray Chen, the firm's president, as saying that third-quarter shipments will grow 20 percent as the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis eased and growth has recovered in the notebook sector.

"I think most people in the industry are estimating this kind of growth and that is what we are seeing now," Chang said.

Compal had said that second quarter shipments are expected to rise 13-15 percent from the first quarter if there are no battery shortage issues, but that gross margin could fall slightly from 4.9 percent in the first quarter.

The company had also said it expects full-year shipments to hit 32 million units, while larger rival Quanta Computer (2382.TW) told Reuters earlier this week that it expects to ship 40 million units for 2008.

Quanta expects global notebook shipments to rise 25 percent from a year ago to hit 130 million units this year, and added that laptop growth, especially from the consumer segment, remained robust. (Click for Quanta story [ID:nTP191128])

In early trade on Thursday, Compal shares fell 1.1 percent, compared to a 0.8 percent fall in the benchmark TAIEX index. Shares of Quanta were 0.8 percent lower.

A supplier to computer giants such as Dell Inc (DELL.O) and Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N), Compal and Quanta Computer make around 60 percent of the world's notebook computers. (US$1=T$30.5) (Reporting by Sheena Lee; Editing by Keiron Henderson)