In recent development about the supply chain crisis, we are hearing reports that the notebook inventories held by Acer’s channel distributors are running pretty low. The PC vendor still has a large backlog of orders from international distributors and to top its problems its uneven inventories across different chip types continue to affect its shipments.

The company’s chairman and CEO Jason Chen stated that Acer has been pushed by channel distributors to deliver shipments, and the PC vendor can now hardly satisfy their demand as related chips and components see varying degrees of shortage.

Chen further stated that the company’s backlog of orders is more than its total shipments for one quarter, and is even continuing to swell thanks to the volume of orders received per month larger than the volume of shipments.

The major reason for this unprecedented crisis is due to the pandemic-driven demand for notebooks and this wave may not ease soon as COVID infections may continue to linger and mankind must learn to coexist with the virus.

Many research institutes have given out their analysis that the notebook shipments will trend downward in 2022, however, Chen believes in Acer and has stated that his company will not sit and wait to see whether third-party market forecasts will prove accurate or not, and instead will take the initiative to find out sales stimulants and create new modes of usage for consumers.

Acer’s revenue performance will be determined by the supply of chip components instead of the market demand for notebooks, believes Chen. He also stated that this helpless scenario is expected to last through at least the end of 2021 or even the first quarter of 2022.

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