Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest custom-chip maker, said it may raise prices to counter higher costs.
“Semiconductor companies are under profitability pressure,” Jason Chen (陳俊聖), vice president of worldwide sales marketing, said yesterday at the company’s technology symposium in Hsinchu, where TSMC is based.
Higher oil prices and Taiwan’s appreciating currency are crimping the company’s earnings, Chen said. The chip industry’s trend of falling average selling prices and rising research and development costs is unsustainable, he said.
“We must change it,” Chen said. He didn’t say how much prices would be raised or when it would happen.
The nation’s consumer prices rose 3.86 percent last month year-on-year, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on May 5. The core CPI, which excludes prices of products such as vegetables, fruit, fishery products and energy, rose 3.1 percent year-on-year last month, the highest level since March 1999, the DGBAS said.
Separately, global semiconductor sales this year will probably increase less than previously forecast, on slumping demand for memory chips used in personal computers and consumer electronics, the industry’s largest association said.
Chip sales will probably rise 4.7 percent to US$267.7 billion this year, less than the 9.1 percent forecast in November, and will gain 5.8 percent next year, WSTS Inc said yesterday in a statement. Revenue increased 3.2 percent last year, the San Jose, California-based group said.
WSTS, whose members account for about 90 percent of the industry, joins market researcher ISuppli Corp and UBS AG in lowering the outlook amid concern the global economy is slowing. The worst housing slump in more than a generation in the US is undermining home values, consumer spending and overall growth.
Revenue in the industry will rise 4 percent to US$273 billion this year, less than the 7 percent forecast earlier, UBS said last month, citing “weak” prices for memory chips and slowing consumer spending. El Segundo, California-based ISuppli last month cut its projection to 4 percent this year from 7.5 percent.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan