Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co, the leading maker of chips to customer specifications, said it expects sales to grow nearly four-fold by 2005 on rising global demand.
TSMC expects sales to rise to NT$300 billion (US$9.4 billion) from about NT$80 billion this year, including sales at two unlisted units, said Y. C. Huang, a vice president.
To meet strong demand, TSMC will boost capacity by 45 percent next year and possibly even more in years to come, Huang said. "The strength in demand is great, especially from our US and European clients," he said.
During the third quarter, TSMC said 65 percent of its sales came from North America, 26 percent from Asia, including Japan, and 9 percent from Europe.
TSMC is just one of many chipmakers that stands to benefit as the semiconductor industry rebounds for the first time in four years on renewed demand for personal computers and other equipment used to access the Internet. Yesterday, Intel Corp, the largest microprocessor maker, called supply "tight" because of higher computer demand.
Worldwide semiconductor sales are expected to rise 21 percent to US$174 billion next year, boosted by sales of chips used in communications equipment and computers, the Semiconductor Industry Association said this week. This year alone, chip sales are expected to jump 15 percent to US$144 billion.
Some investors said TSMC sales may grow even faster than the company expects. Calling the company's estimate "too conservative," Albert King, manager of China Securities Investment Trust Co's US$330 million Taiwan Fund, put the company's 2005 sales at US$15 billion.
"With the industry thriving, it's very easy for TSMC's sales to grow 30 percent annually," said King, who said shares in TSMC and its rival, United Microelectronics Corp, make up 16 percent of his portfolio.
TSMC is planning to spend US$2 billion to expand its capacity next year to the equivalent of 2.81 million eight-inch wafers from 1.89 million this year. UMC also has expansion plans.
Chip foundries such as TSMC and UMC benefit most from growing chip demand because they only make chips that are designed by others, sparing them the cost of developing new products.
Because new chip factories cost as much as US$2 billion each, more semiconductor companies are placing orders at foundries such as TSMC and UMC. The rise of so-called fabless chip companies -- firms that design chips but don't make them -- is also giving the foundry market a boost.
TSMC Chairman Morris Chang developed the foundry model when he founded TSMC in 1987. TSMC and UMC together control two-thirds of the foundry chip market, followed by Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Co of Singapore.
TSMC shares more than doubled this year, making them Taiwan's fourth-best performer. They rose 1.8 percent yesterday to NT$141.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last