The shortages of Intel's new 14nm processors are undermining Taiwan-based notebook ODMs' performances with Compal Electronics' August PC shipments staying flat from a month ago, while other ODMs also reportedly have reduced their shipment estimates for the third quarter.

Some notebook brands have revealed that Intel so far still has not yet provided a clear schedule of when the shortages can be resolved and neither has it disclosed the details of the cause of the shortages except for blaming on poor production yield rates.

Commenting on the shortages, Intel has noted that clients' demand has been growing in the past 12 months, prompting it to raise its revenue forecast for 2018 to reflect the rise, and that it will have sufficient CPU supply that allows the company to meet its forecast.

Currently, Intel is working closely with clients and makers to manage their orders. The company's Xeon and Core product lines including eighth-gen Intel Core U and Y series CPUs, which will be broadly used in brand vendors' devices in autumn of 2018, will be the supply priority.

Compal has announced consolidated revenues of NT$82.94 billion (US$2.67 billion) for August, up 3.08% on month and 5.6% on year with combined consolidated revenues for the first eight months of 2018 arriving at NT$597.39 billion, up 8.57% on year. Compal's revenue growth in the month was primarily contributed by non-PC product lines as the company's PC shipments were only 3.3 million units in August, flat from a month ago.

Compal expects its third-quarter PC shipments to grow only less than 5% in the third quarter. Company president Martin Wong noted that demand in the third quarter is strong, but supply is growing weakly because of the Intel shortages. Compal is expected to become the largest notebook maker worldwide in 2018, surpassing Quanta Computer.

As for the fourth quarter, Compal expects the shipments to remain at around the same level as in the third.

Wistron originally expected its third-quarter notebook shipments to rise a single-digit percentage sequentially, but some market watchers noted that the ODM has internally adjusted the forecast to a flat performance.

Inventec announced August consolidated revenues at NT$49.87 billion, up 15.55% on month and 20.19% on year with combined consolidated revenues for the first eight months of 2018 at NT$324.74 billion, up 11.27% on year.

Inventec shipped 1.8 million notebooks in August, up 28% on month. Inventec expects its third-quarter shipments to grow 3.5% sequentially with the fourth-quarter volume to stay at the level of the third. Inventec has begun seeing CPU shortages undermine its shipments in September.

Market watchers noted that Quanta is currently a major supplier for Apple's MacBook and because of the product series' high ASPs, the CPU shortages are expected to have a major impact on the ODM's revenue performance.

Despite the market watchers' speculation, Quanta still expects a single-digit percentage sequential growth in notebook shipments in the third quarter, but the company is not able to provide a clear forecast for its performance in the fourth quarter. For 2018, Quanta expects its notebook shipments to slide 10% on year.

Currently, Intel's 14nm U series Whiskey Lake and Y series Amber Lake processors are both reportedly in short supply and the market watchers believe the supply may not turn stable until the end of 2018.