The LG Chem, South Korea plant fire, in March, caused a sharp drop in the global supply of lithium-ion batteries. The situation seems to deteriorate due to strong demand for laptops this year. A number of computer assemblers like Asustek Computer have announced that the company's laptop supply this year will be significantly affected.
" I think the lack of laptop batteries will have a significant impact, " said JT Wang, Acer president at an investment conference of the company two weeks ago.
Lack of laptop batteries hurts manufacturers Picture 1 Meanwhile, the world's largest laptop battery manufacturer - Simplo Technology said that the shortage will be overcome in the third quarter, and manufacturers can be assured of business.
Asustek believes that the company's mini-laptops, the Asus Eee PC, won't reach its target this year. Asustek aims to sell 5 million Eee PCs but it seems that this plan is hard to achieve.
Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract maker, predicts that the lack of laptop batteries will have a bad effect because large companies often require a large amount of products when making contracts.