Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday last week posted its second-highest monthly sales for the month of October, with analysts saying that the strong showing was largely a product of solid demand for chips made by the chipmaker’s sophisticated 7-nanometer (nm) process.
Consolidated sales totaled NT$101.55 billion (US$3.3 billion), up 7 percent from the previous month and up 7.4 percent from a year earlier, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement.
That figure was only slightly lower than the monthly record of NT$103.70 billion in March.
In the first 10 months of this year, cumulative sales totaled NT$843.25 billion, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, TSMC said.
Analysts said the increase in sales echo TSMC’s earlier forecast that solid demand for high-end smartphones would boost shipments of chips made using the 7nm process, which went into mass production in the first half of this year.
As TSMC is the sole supplier of processors for the latest iPhones, Apple Inc’s orders have driven the chipmaker’s 7nm process shipments, analysts said.
China-based HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), owned by smartphone vendor Huawei Technologies Co (華為), also placed large orders for TSMC’s 7nm process chips as the Chinese smartphone brand unveiled new models.
TSMC told investors last month that it expects 7nm chips to account for more than 20 percent of its fourth-quarter sales, up from 11 percent in the third quarter.
Sales for the fourth quarter would range from US$9.35 billion to US$9.45 billion, up about 10 percent from the third quarter, it said.
The 7nm process is expected to make up about 10 percent of TSMC’s total sales this year and top 20 percent next year on the back of increasing demand from smartphone, automotive electronics, Internet of Things and high-performance computing device suppliers, it said.
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