Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) recorded its highest ever sales for a month in August and appeared set to top Samsung Electronics as the world’s top IC supplier by revenue in the third quarter.
In a statement released Thursday, TSMC said it posted consolidated sales of NT$218.13 billion (US$7.06 billion) in August, up 58.7 percent from a year earlier and up 16.8 percent from a month earlier when it set its previous monthly high for sales of NT$186.76 billion.
In the first eight months of 2022, TSMC’s consolidated sales totaled NT$1.43 trillion, up 43.5 percent year-on-year.
Market information provider IC Insights expected TSMC to see further sales growth in September and displace Samsung as the biggest IC supplier by revenue in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, TSMC had sales of US$18.16 billion, taking over the second spot from U.S.-based Intel Corp., which had revenue of US$14.86 billion in the quarter.
Samsung was still well ahead of the field with IC revenue of US$22.62 billion, according to IC Insights.
TSMC’s anticipated US$20.2 billion in revenue in the third quarter, however, should catapult it above Samsung’s expected revenue of US$18.29 billion, which would be down 19 percent from the second quarter due to weakening demand for memory chips, IC Insights said.
In 2021, TSMC was the third largest semiconductor maker in the world with US$56.84 billion in sales, after Samsung’s US$82.02 billion and Intel’s US$76.74 billion.
TSMC is known as the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, but Samsung and Intel have had higher overall IC sales because they both produce chips for use in their own finished products, whether for Samsung’s smartphones or Intel’s PC and notebook computer processors.
Concerns were raised by a report earlier this week that TSMC’s sales would be blunted because IC designers MediaTek Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp. were scaling back their orders to TSMC due to inventory adjustments.
The company responded, however, that its production capacity would be fully utilized to the end of 2022.
It also maintained its forecast that sales for 2022 would grow 34-36 percent year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms and that its long term compound annual growth rate would be 15-20 percent.
At an investor conference in mid-July, TSMC forecast its sales for the third quarter to range between US$19.8 billion and US$20.6 billion, and given that its sales in July and August totaled NT$404.895 billion, analysts were confident it would hit its target.
Analysts attributed its record results during the two months to TSMC’s edge in its advanced 5 nanometer and 7nm processes, enabling it to meet demand for emerging technologies such as high performance computing devices, 5G applications and automotive electronics.
The 5 nanometer process is the latest technology used by TSMC to mass produce chips, and it is expected to launch commercial production of the 3nm process later this year.
Analysts said with Apple Inc., one of TSMC’s major clients, unveiling new gadgets such as the iPhone 14, Apple Watch and AirPods in September, demand for the chipmaker’s 5nm process grew further in August.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel