Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a 14.5 percent monthly decline in revenue to NT$59.96 billion (US$1.92 billion) for last month, a 7.47 percent reduction in revenue from the first quarter.
Revenue fell to NT$205.45 billion last quarter, compared with NT$222.03 billion in the first quarter, due to sagging mobile phone and PC demand. The quarterly results matched the chipmaker’s revenue forecast of between NT$204 billion and NT$207 billion for last quarter.
TSMC, which supplies microprocessors for Apple Inc’s iPhone 6 products, earlier said that the weak handset market would cut demand for its 28-nanometer chips last quarter.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) last month told shareholders that the firm’s business in the second half would be better than in the first half.
“For the full year, revenue will grow by a double-digit percentage from last year,” Chang said.
The growth would come from recovering mobile phone demand after channel inventory was reduced to seasonal levels, as well as early revenue contributions from the company’s new 16-nanometer chips, the company said.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the nation’s No. 2 contract chipmaker, saw sales drop by 6.73 percent to NT$12.06 billion last month, compared with NT$12.93 billion in May.
In the quarter ended on June 30, sales inched up 0.96 percent from the first quarter’s NT$37.65 billion to a record high of NT$38.01 billion, according to a company statement released on Thursday.
The quarterly figure met UMC’s projection, but high inventory levels are likely to hinder the company’s business this quarter, Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Rick Hsu (徐稦成) said in a report yesterday.
Daiwa estimated UMC would report NT$37.4 billion in sales for last quarter.
Based on Daiwa’s analysis, Hsu said inventory correction was likely to be U-shaped, implying another muted quarter.
Hsu forecast that UMC’s sales would grow by a low single-digit percentage this quarter due to potential cuts to orders for its 28-nanometer chips, which would further weigh on the company’s gross and profit margins.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”