Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday said it planned to ramp up spending on new facilities and equipment next year as part of an effort to stay ahead of peers by taking advantage of the global economic recovery.
The company’s expansion plans also matched better-than-expected pickup in the global economy, which is expected to rebound by 3.5 percent annually rather than 3 percent, as TSMC estimated in October, the company said.
“It’s all related. When the world economy dips, the semiconductor [industry] dips,” TSMC chairman and chief executive Morris Chang (張忠謀) said in a keynote speech during the company’s annual supply chain management forum.
With the help of stimulus and bailout packages from major developed countries, especially the US, “I think we can all be reasonably optimistic about economic future,” Chang said.
“So, the next two years look good, especially 2010,” Chang said, giving his outlook on the world’s semiconductor industry.
Revenues in the semiconductor industry may grow by 9 percent year-on-year next year and 5 percent in 2011, a rebound from this year’s 11 percent contraction, TSMC said.
To seek growth from recovering market demand, TSMC will allocate “much higher” capital spending next year than the US$2.7 billion budgeted for this year and US$1.8 billion last year. In October, the company only said the spending would be “higher.”
Next year, contract chipmakers led by TSMC will track the growth of chip designers, which are expected to grow by 16 percent next year and 8 percent in 2011, Chang said, adding that TSMC generates 75 percent of its revenue from supplying chips to chip designers.
TSMC will outpace competitors, he said. Randy Abrams, a semiconductor industry analyst at Credit Suisse, predicted that TSMC would spend as much as US$4 billion on new equipment next year, a report said on Thursday.
“We believe low inventory and good demand keeps 12-inch [plants] full into the first quarter of 2010, with a moderate seasonal pullback on 8-inch [plants],” Abrams said in the report.
TSMC’s revenues may slide by mid-to-high single digits in the conventionally slack first quarter from this quarter, versus an earlier estimate of a 10 percent decline, Abrams said.
This quarter, revenues may be between NT$90 billion (US$2.8 billion) and NT$92 billion, the chipmaker projected in October.
Meanwhile, Chang yesterday did not respond to a reporter’s question about whether the company is interested in acquiring local solar cell companies as he rushed toward an elevator after the speech.
Despite market speculation that TSMC may be interested in acquiring local solar cell makers, such as Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) and Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源), no company spokesperson was available to confirm the potential deals.
Motech, the nation’s biggest maker of solar cells, saw shares surge 4.5 percent to NT$129 yesterday, the highest since Oct. 27 last year, while Neo Solar rose limit-up to NT$76.5, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
TSMC shares were unchanged at NT$61.5 yesterday.
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