Seems to me the Chinese economy is accelerating on exports and internal consumption. How to best invest in Chinese tech stocks?
Legend outpaces HP in Asia By Reuters February 5, 2003, 9:45 PM PT
China's Legend Group increased its lead in Asia-Pacific's personal computer market during 2002, growing at twice the pace of global PC leader Hewlett-Packard, according to annual data released on Wednesday. PC sales in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, grew 8.6 percent to 21.7 million units sold during 2002, or nearly three times the global industry rate, which has been weighed down by maturing demand in North America and Europe, according to market research firm Dataquest.
"The Asia-Pacific market's growth rate was a significant contributor to the worldwide industry returning to positive growth in 2002," said Lillian Tay, a senior analyst with Dataquest, a unit of technology market research company Gartner.
The region accounted for 16.3 percent of world PC shipments that Gartner estimates totaled 132.4 million last year. Japan shipped another 8.9 percent of the world total.
Separately, Gartner counted PC shipments during 2002 in Japan of 11.8 million, making it the world's second-largest computer market behind the United States and ahead of China. But annual PC shipments in Japan fell 10 percent from 2001.
In Asia outside of Japan, IBM held steady in third place, followed by Dell Computer, the only company among the top five PC makers in the region to grow at double-digit rates at 23 percent.
Dell surged past former fourth-ranked Samsung Electronics of Korea, which suffered a 1 percent decline in growth last year.
"Dell was focused in countries such as China to build up the base there, and that contributed to the growth rates while maintaining their strong hold on countries such as Australia, Malaysia and Singapore," Tay said.
Legend held 11.4 percent of the Asia-Pacific market, followed by HP's 10.4 percent. IBM's share was 7.1 percent followed by Dell at 5.7 percent and Samsung at 5.6 percent. Dell had 5 percent one year ago to Samsung's 6.1 percent.
Legend's strength in the steadily growing Chinese market, where it produces roughly one-third of all PCs sold, bolstered its regional position. China, with 9.3 million PCs and healthy ongoing growth, is poised to outpace flagging Japan during 2003, to become the No. 2 PC market after the United States.
Much of the growth in the region came from countries such as Thailand, which jumped 40 percent, and India which outpaced the regional average with growth of 12 percent. Australia's PC shipments grew 9.5 percent to 2.1 million PCs at year-end.
Korea, the second-largest market in the Asia-Pacific region, shipped 2.98 million PCs, reflecting more or less flat growth over 2001. More mature markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore suffered negative growth rates in 2002, because of sluggish economies and rising unemployment rates, Gartner said.
PC shipments in Taiwan reached 1.25 million, up 12.4 percent, while those in Malaysia grew 15.8 percent to 775,200. From a far smaller base, Vietnam shipments grew 19.8 percent during 2002 to 177,266.
Much of Asia's growth came from demand for PCs by small and medium-sized businesses, as well as for mobile PCs, Kay said.
