As total notebook shipments from Chongqing, China increased to 15.74 million units in 2011 with production volume also growing more than 1,000 fold to US$5.15 billion, Acer and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are both set to increase their shipments proportion from Chongqing in 2012.

Acer shipped about 28-29 million notebooks in 2011 with 5-6 million units supplied from Chongqing, accounting for 20%. For 2012, Acer expects its notebook shipments will grow 10% on year to reach 30.8 million units with supply from Chongqing expected to surpass 50%, about 15 million units.

Since labor shortages in the coastal areas of China are becoming worse, while several coastal cities are set to raise their minimum wages such as Shanghai, which is set to increase its minimal wage from CNY1,120 (US$177.68) to CNY1,280 each month on April, 1 and Shenzhen, which has just recently raised its minimum wage from CNY1,320 to CNY1,500, helping the area to become a region that has the highest minimum wage in China.

Acer's major ODM partners are Compal Electronics and Quanta Computer and with the company's plans to increase shipments proportion from Chongqing, the two ODMs are expected to become more aggressive in expanding their production lines.

Compal is already set to increase its monthly capacity of about 400,000 units from Chongqing to 700,000-800,000 in the second quarter of 2012 with volumes to increase further to one million units in the second half.

Quanta also plans to have its Chongqing plants account for 30% of its total capacity by the end of the first quarter.