Taipei: Acer, the world’s no.3 PC brand, expects its operating profit margins to climb as high as 3% by 2010, helped by aggressive cost savings measures, a company official said on Wednesday.

Operating profit margins in the third quarter of this year should also rise to about 2.8% from 2.52% in the April-June quarter, the official said.

She also confirmed local media reports that the firm expects PC shipments in the third quarter to climb 35-40% from the preceding three months.

Analysts said Acer had been performing well compared with some of its peers in keeping its operating profit margins healthy by ensuring its production costs were low.

“A 3% margin growth could be easily achieved by Acer next year, with the company already predicting a 2.8 percent rise in the third quarter,” said an analyst declined to be identified.

“I see that their margins are higher than some other notebook makers.”

Some investors worried that cheaper prices in its consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) ultra-thin notebook may drag the profit margins lower, but analysts said margins from the product could still be higher than netbooks.

Intel launched a CULV chip that aims to bridge the gap between cheap netbook chips and more powerful and expensive chips used in traditional notebook PCs.

“Acer’s CULV model is cheaper than mainstream notebooks, but it’s still more expensive than netbooks,” said Angela Hsiang, a technology analyst at KGI Securities.

By 0331 GMT, shares of Acer gained 3.22%, outperforming the main board’s 0.3% rise.