Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects sales in the global semiconductor industry to rise by up to 13 percent this year — excluding memorychip operations.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker made the forecast in its annual report released last week.
Amid expanding 5G services, faster artificial intelligence development and digital transformation, demand for electronic gadgets is expected to grow at a stable rate and boost semiconductor sales, excluding memory chip revenue, by 11 to 13 percent, it said.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The prediction places global sales growth behind TSMC’s expected sales figures: The chipmaker on Thursday told an investors’ conference that its sales this year could grow more than 29 percent in US dollar terms.
Due to rapid development in commercial 5G services, 5G smartphones have a shorter life cycle, the company said, adding that global smartphone shipments rose by about 6 percent last year and is likely to grow 1 to 3 percent this year.
Global sales of high-performance computing devices rose 10 percent last year and are estimated to grow 1 to 3 percent this year, TSMC said. It attributed last year’s growth to a booming stay-at-home economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which necessitated upgrades for servers and data centers.
Digital transformation has pushed up global shipments of Internet of Things devices by 30 percent amid robust demand for family automation equipment, smart watches and smart health devices, TSMC said, adding that revenue growth in the segment is expected to surpass 20 percent this year.
Global vehicle sales last year grew only 3 percent due to a chip shortage and the effects of the pandemic, but the auto market is expected to grow 7 to 13 percent this year amid improving chip supplies, it said.
Sales of consumer electronics could decline 1 to 3 percent this year, but sales of high-end mini-LEDs, organic LEDs and smart TVs are expected to buck the downturn by keeping their momentum from a year earlier, it added.
The semiconductor industry is expected to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 to 9 percent from last year to 2026, excluding memorychip suppliers, the company said.
It added that CAGR in the pure-play wafer foundry segment, which is dominated by TSMC, would surpass that forecast.
The company last year reported sales of US$56.82 billion, up 24.9 percent year-on-year and its 12th consecutive annual revenue record. It last year accounted for 26 percent of global semiconductor sales, excluding memory chips.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in the report that the company has entered a higher growth cycle and that they expected demand for 5G services and high-performance computing devices to drive the chipmaker’s sales growth over the next few years.
To meet that demand and enhance its competitive edge, TSMC said it would expand worldwide and enlarge its talent pool.
In Taiwan, TSMC’s advanced 3-nanometer process is expected to come online in the second half of this year and mass production is to begin next year, while the more sophisticated 2-nanometer process is scheduled to begin commercial production in 2025.
The company is also planning to expand its plant in Nanjing, China, using the mature 28-nanometer process, with production capacity to start increasing in the second half of this year.
Its plant in Arizona is expected to start commercial production in 2024 using the 5-nanometer process, and another plant in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture is scheduled to produce chips using the 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer processes, also in 2024.
TSMC is to hold its annual general meeting on June 8.
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