Acer is expected to have 60-62% of its notebook shipments supplied from Chongqing, China in 2012 and the proportion will rise to 75% in 2013, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. Acer has declined to comment about its shipment plans.

However, Acer's major ODM partner Compal Electronics is persuading the vendor to further increase supply from Chongqing to cut costs, the sources noted.

Currently, Compal is manufacturing some of Acer's notebooks at plants in Chongqing (inland China) and other notebooks at plants in Kunshan (coastal China). Merging these orders to only one manufacturing site will greatly help reduce the ODM's costs, the sources added.

Compared to notebook ODMs' concerns over costs, vendors' major concerns from the strategy are mainly about risks, as most of them are trying to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket, the sources explained.

Some sources also noted that if vendors fully shift their notebook production to inland China, they will lose an advantage in bargaining with local governments.

Acer is estimated to ship about 24-25 million notebooks in 2012, with 15 million units being supplied from Chongqing.