Retail prices for laptop computers are set to rise as contract manufacturers move to raise prices for the first time in the face of soaring raw material and assembly costs.

Quanta, Compal and Wistron, the world’s three largest notebook contract manufacturers by output, are in talks with their customers – branded computer vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer – on how to share the burden of rocketing prices for key materials. Labour costs in China, where the manufacturers have their main production bases, are also rising.