Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is expected to expand its global market share to more than 50 percent this year and to 60 percent in the next few years, benefiting primarily from its leadership position in advanced technologies, Credit Suisse AG said yesterday.
That would represent a big jump from the company’s 35 percent to 36 percent market share in 2000, according to a report released yesterday by Credit Suisse’s Taipei securities branch.
TSMC has a higher share in the two leading nodes — 28-nanometer and 20-nanometer technologies — than its overall market share, the brokerage said.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) told investors in October last year that the chipmaker has an about 80 percent share in the 28nm market.
TSMC’s revenue has grown by a composite average rate of 17 percent over the past 10 years, outpacing the 16 percent increase for fabless companies and the 5 percent rise for the overall semiconductor industry, Credit Suisse analyst Randy Abrams said in the report.
At the brokerage’s annual Asian Investment Conference held in Hong Kong yesterday, TSMC management said the firm would improve its gross margin this year on better market share and accelerated cost-reduction programs.
That is “more optimistic than the [company’s] prior goal of keeping it [gross margin] flat,” Abrams said.
Last year, TSMC’s gross margin slid to 47.1 percent from 48.2 percent in 2012.
The company said two weeks ago that it was expecting its gross margin to rise to 47 percent in the current quarter from 44.5 percent last quarter.
That compared with the firm’s original guidance of between 44.5 percent and 46.5 percent.
Revenue is expected to grow 0.82 percent to NT$147 billion (US$4.8 billion) this quarter from NT$145.81 billion last quarter, thanks primarily to rising demand for 28nm chips and inventory restocking demand.
Credit Suisse retained its “outperform” rating on TSMC with a target price at NT$130, improving about 14.54 percent from the stock’s closing price of NT$113.5 yesterday.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS