* Revises down full-year shipments by 13 pct
* Sees impact from Japan quake in May-June but says manageable
* Chengdu, Chongqing plants will start shipments in July-Aug (Adds details)
TAIPEI, April 26 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Compal Electronics Inc , the world's No.2 contract laptop maker, said its full-year notebook PC shipments would be flat this year, a downward revision as popular tablet PCs chipped away at the market share of traditional PCs.
Compal President Ray Chen told an investor conference on Tuesday that the company targets notebook PC shipments this year of 48 million units.
The new target is almost 13 percent lower than the 55 million unit-target laid out at the beginning of the year, and flat compared with shipments in 2010.
"The notebook market was affected by tablets the most in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, but it is recovering gradually now," Ray Chen said. "The first quarter was the bottom, the second quarter will be growth, the third and fourth quarter will even be stronger growth."
The company aims for tablet shipments of 3.8 million units this year, Chen said, and said the company will start producing touch sensor screens in September.
Chen also said he expects Compal's supply chain of raw materials in Japan to be partly affected in the May-June period by last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami, noting sales in the second quarter would likely drop by about 3 percent.
The company said earlier this month that it still saw orders coming in for May and June after the massive earthquake in Japan. [ID:nT8E7EO02C]
Acer Inc , Compal's major client and the world's No.2 PC vendor, reported last week a 64 percent fall in unaudited first quarter net profit, missing forecasts. [ID:nT8E7FE01A] It has also cut its PC shipment forecast for the second quarter, citing a recent reorganisation, inventory adjustment and a seasonal slowdown in the PC industry. [ID:nL3E7FJ1LJ]
Chen also said the company's plants in Chengdu and Chongqing, China, would start shipments in July-August. (Reporting by Argin Chang and Clare Jim; Editing by Ken Wills; Editing by Chris Lewis)