Acer, Asustek Among Winners of China's Household Appliances Contracts

Taipei, Feb. 6, 2010 (CENS)--Acer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc. have won the bids, along with other 529 suppliers from and offshore mainland China, to supply 12 categories of household appliances contracted by the mainland authorities as part of the mainland's 2010 plan to offer more subsidized household appliances to rural citizens.

This was the first bid invited by the mainland's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology after the three ministries raised the ceiling price of these household appliances to increase subsidy rate.

Acer, currently the world's No.2 brand supplier of personal computers, won the bids with 17 models of personal computers, including Aspire AG3700 collection, in bid prices ranging from 2,499 to 4,999 Chinese yuan (from US$367.5 to US$735) apiece. Asustek was contracted in this bid to supply 50 PC models in bid prices ranging from 2,999 to 4,999 yuan (from US$441 to US$735).

Other Taiwanese bid winners include PC supplier Top Victory Electronics (Taiwan) Co., Ltd., water heater maker Kakura Taiwan Corp. and LCD TV assembler TPV Technology Ltd.

According to the mainland's official statistics, white goods like fridges were the mostly purchased appliances in 2009's subsidization program. Refrigerator alone represented sales of 15.6 million units, followed by color TV's 8.8 million units and washing machine's 5.58 million.

In the 2010's project, flat-panel TVs replaced spherical tube TVs. Although no Taiwanese TV suppliers won the bids, over half of the winners in this category use Taiwan-made liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. Taiwan's panel makers estimated the mainland to buy around US$6 billion of panels by the end of this year.

The 12 categories are washing machine, color TV, refrigerator, freezer, mobile phone, microwave oven, air conditioner, induction cooker, personal computer, solar water heater, electrical water heater and gas water heater.

Industry executives estimated the 2010 household appliance bid to bring Taiwanese suppliers heftier profit than that they enjoyed from 2009 bids thanks to higher ceiling prices this year.