Q2 server shipments to grow 20% q-o-q

Update: April 15, 2021
Q2 server shipments to grow 20% q-o-q

The hyperscalers were responsible for more than 40% of total demand for servers in 4Q20, says TrendForce, and this may rise to  45% this year.

For 2021, TrendForce expects global server shipment to increase by more than 5% YoY and ODM Direct server shipment to increase by more than 15% YoY.

ODM vendors saw a 1% QoQ growth in L6 server barebones orders from their clients in 1Q21, but this growth is expected to reach 15-18% in 2Q21.

Apart from server ODMs maintaining a strong momentum, server OEMs (or server brands) will also be able to significantly raise their unit shipments in 2Q21.

The quarterly total shipments from server OEMs for 2Q21 is currently projected to increase by 20% compared with 1Q21 that was the traditional off-season.

Server manufacturers’ response to component supply shortages has been to transition to a more flexible procurement strategy by sourcing from two or three suppliers instead of a single supplier for a single component.

TrendForce therefore believes that the current supply of key components including BMCs and PMICs is sufficient for server manufacturers, without any noticeable risk of supply chain disruptions in the short run.

China’s server demand, which accounted for about 27.2% of the global total in 1Q21, continues to grow annually which is good news for Huawei and Inspur.

Huawei’s server shipments are  forecast to register a YoY growth rate of about 5% this year.

Inspur is expected to capture around 30% of China’s total server demand in 2021 thanks to sizable ODM business with tier-1 Chinese cloud service providers (i.e., Baidu, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent).

The volume of incoming orders for the first half of this year will also be quite massive because tier-2 cloud service providers and e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Kuaishou, and Meituan will be injecting significant demand.