By Yifan Wang

Lenovo Group expects to resume sales growth in its personal-computer and data-center businesses in the current quarter, thanks to recovering production at Chinese factories and a coronavirus-triggered demand boom amid increasing online activities, the company's chief executive told The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the smartphone segment, which contributes to about 10% of Lenovo's total revenue, is expected to improve from the prior quarter, CEO Yang Yuanqing said Wednesday.

Revenue for all three segments fell in the January-to-March period.

"This quarter, definitely, we will ship more PCs, smartphones, servers and storages," he said. "We are optimistic."

However, sales recovery will be capped by component availability. Mr. Yang said the company still faces some shortages despite recent efforts to accumulate inventory, as the public health crisis has crippled suppliers' production and transportation.

The majority of Lenovo's plants are in China and have mostly resumed operations at full capacity by the end of March.

Resumption of Chinese production will compensate for disruptions at overseas factories, which began to face restrictions such as temporary closures and workforce reductions since March. These plants, spanning India to Brazil, retained some production operations as most countries have designated personal computers essential products and allowed manufacturing to continue despite pandemic-control measures, Mr. Yang said.

Global PC shipments have held up relatively better than other electronic devices, including smartphones, as demand for computers and monitors surged amid a pivot to working and studying from home.

Mr. Yang expects this demand boom to be sustained in the long run, as consumers increase the number of computers per household and enterprise clients replace desktop workstations with laptops for flexibility, even after the pandemic. This could provide much-needed growth potential for an industry struggling with market saturation.

"I believe PCs could be like smartphones in the future, a one-unit-per-person device," he said. 



  Write to Yifan Wang at yifan.wang@wsj.com