Compal Electronics has announced that notebook shipments for February 2011 declined 18% sequentially to 2.7 million units, which came below market watcher estimates of 2.9-3 million units.

Compal attributed the negative result to a shipment interruption caused by Intel's defective chips, as well as fewer working days in the month. Shipments will rebound to above four million units in March, as the shipment status and working days resume to normal, the company said.

A flowing back of orders from clients will also buoy Compal's March performance, the company noted. Demand in Europe and the US has been warming up.

Compal posted NT$43.57 billion (US$1.48 billion) in February consolidated revenues, down 18.5% on month and 36.7% on year.

Market watchers predict that Compal may ship about 10.1 million notebooks in the first quarter of 2011, down 13.7% from the 11.7 million units shipped in the prior quarter, and missing the company's original target of a 10% decrease.

In other news, Compal shipped 410,000 LCD TVs in February, compared to the 500,000 units shipped in January. The company's monitor shipments were 100,000 units in February.