Despite the reduced number of working days in April, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported a new sales high for the month of over NT$170 billion, driven by strong demand for emerging technologies.
In a statement, TSMC said it earned NT$172.56 billion (US$5.81 billion) in consolidated sales in April, up 0.3 percent from a month earlier and up 55 percent from a year earlier.
For the first four months of this year, TSMC’s consolidated sales totaled NT$663.64 billion, up 40.1 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s record-high April sales followed on remarks by its executives at an investor conference in mid-April that the chipmaker would continue to ride the wave of strong demand for emerging technologies, such as high-performance computing (HPC) devices and automotive electronics.
Market analysts said TSMC continued to utilize its full production capacity as these emerging applications pushed up demand for the company’s chips made using its advanced 7-nanometer (nm) and 5nm processes.
The 5nm process is currently TSMC’s most advanced technology for commercial production. The chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production using the more sophisticated 3nm process in the second half of this year.
Forecast
TSMC has forecast it would post US$17.6 billion to US$18.2 billion in consolidated sales in the second quarter, and that based on the median sales forecasts, its quarter-on-quarter growth would reach 1.9 percent.
According to TSMC’s second-quarter sales forecast, analysts said the chipmaker was expected to generate NT$162.7 billion to NT$175.8 billion in average consolidated sales for May and for June.
Analysts said they did not rule out the possibility that TSMC would report another new sales high for the following two months after April.
TSMC has remained upbeat about strong global demand for tech devices in 2022, expecting its sales to grow 25 percent to 29 percent from a year earlier in U.S. dollar terms. It cited HPC devices and automotive electronics as the two pillars of the expected sales growth.
The chipmaker has also anticipated that its production capacity would remain fully utilized throughout 2022.
Analysts have estimated that TSMC will rake in about NT$34 in earning per share in 2022, up from NT$23.01 in 2021.
TSMC released its April sales after the local equity market closed Tuesday.
The company’s shares ended down 0.38 percent at NT$518.00 after coming off a low of NT$505.00 as bargain hunters took advantage to purchase the stock after recent heavy losses caused by worries over a rate hike cycle launched by the United States Federal Reserve.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel