Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investors’ conference on Thursday could not have come at a better time. As the local bourse suffered a 4.48 percent slump last week, investors were hoping the chipmaker could shed light on the latest developments in the semiconductor industry and that its third-quarter results could help stabilize the market.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted strong sales for last month, hitting the second-highest level in the company’s history at NT$94.92 billion (US$3.07 billion), with cumulative sales in the first nine months increasing 6 percent year-on-year to NT$741.73 billion.
However, given macroeconomic uncertainty caused by the US-China trade dispute and the overall downturn in the semiconductor industry due to product cycles and market dynamics, TSMC is not immune to clients’ conservative placing of orders, even though it is doing better than its peers, analysts said.
The company’s fourth-quarter sales are predicted to increase by 10 to 12 percent from last quarter’s NT$260.35 billion, with a gross margin of 49.9 percent and operating margin of 38.2 percent, as well as earnings per share of NT$3.92, Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd said in a note on Monday, adding that its sales and earnings forecasts are 3 to 5 percent below the market consensus.
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market and a major supplier of processors to Apple Inc, on Friday ended 4.18 percent higher at NT$237 in Taipei trading, compared with the 2.44 percent gain on the broader market, which during the previous session plunged 6.31 percent, its largest-ever one-day loss.
Amid market turmoil, the stock’s defensive nature is becoming more important, analysts said, citing TSMC’s stable industry position and financial strength.
In addition, the Taiwanese chipmaker is likely to become the sole foundry for Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s processors, starting by producing 7-nanometer chips, after Globalfoundries Inc in late August said that it would no longer produce chips using the more advanced process technology, Maybank said.
TSMC is also to receive all of the orders for Apple’s A13 chips next year, DigiTimes reported on its Web site on Friday.
Other major heavyweights in the high-tech sector — including Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科), Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋), Powertech Technology Inc (力成), Macronix International Co (旺宏) and AU Optronics Corp (友達) — are to hold their earnings conferences later this month and their quarterly results and near-term outlooks, especially with regard to clients’ year-end inventory adjustments, would offer an insight into local equities in the fourth quarter, analysts said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the