Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported a second straight month of revenue growth to NT$176.54 billion (US$5.75 billion) last month, its best result since February.
Last month’s revenue expanded 19.4 percent from NT$147.9 billion in April, but was down 4.94 percent from NT$185.71 billion in May last year.
TSMC reported first-quarter revenue of NT$833.07 billion, down 1.9 percent from NT$849.34 billion in the same period last year.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, Bloomberg
TSMC has said that it expects a drop of about 10 percent in revenue in the first half of this year from the same period last year, compared with an earlier estimate of a mid-to-high single-digit percentage fall.
The company attributed the changed outlook to longer-than-expected inventory digestion in its supply chains that is likely to extend into the third quarter.
It made NT$1.025 trillion in the first half of last year.
TSMC said it expects second-half revenue to be higher than the first half, benefiting from new product launches by customers.
There has been a pickup in demand, especially for generative artificial intelligence (AI) chips, propelling demand for high-end chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) technology, TSMC said on Tuesday.
That reinforced the company’s expectations that this quarter would be the bottom for its business.
TSMC on Thursday launched a new advanced packaging fab to support the next generation of chips for high-performance computing, AI, mobile applications and other products.
The new fab at the Jhunan Science Park (竹南科學園區) in Miaoli County is the chipmaker’s largest advanced chip packaging fab.
The fab would add capacity flexibility for its advanced packaging and silicon stacking technologies, such as small outline integrated circuits, integrated fan-out (InFO) and CoWoS, while improving advanced testing, production yield and efficiency, TSMC said.
Meanwhile, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 3 contract chipmaker, reported a third consecutive month of revenue growth last month.
Revenue rose 1.7 percent to NT$18.78 billion from NT$18.46 billion in April, although it declined 23.14 percent from NT$24.43 billion in the same month last year.
In the first five months of this year, UMC revenue fell 17.35 percent to NT$91.45 billion from NT$110.66 billion in the same period last year.
The company said it has not seen strong signs of a significant recovery in the second half, which is usually the peak season for the electronics industry.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), a key supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pods to TSMC, yesterday said revenue expanded 22.09 percent annually to NT$2.09 billion in the first five months, bucking the semiconductor industry’s downtrend.
Gudeng said its factory is fully utilized this quarter, thanks to robust demand.
Separately, Gudeng has lost a patent infringement lawsuit against bigger rival Entegris Inc.
Gudgeng in November 2021 filed a case accusing Entegris of illegally using its patents for its EUV and front-opening unified pod (FOUP)-related technologies.
Entegris, a supplier of advanced materials and process solutions for the semiconductor and other high-tech industries, said that the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court ruled in its favor.
The ruling reaffirms Entegris’ unwavering commitment to identifying and safeguarding valid third-party intellectual property rights, and it remains steadfast in protecting these rights whenever the need arises, Entegris said in a statement.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
STABLE DEMAND: Delta supplies US clients in the aerospace, defense and machinery segments, and expects second-half sales to be similar to the first half Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) expects its US automation business to remain steady in the second half, with no signs of weakening client demand. With demand from US clients remaining solid, its performance in the second half is expected to be similar to that of the first half, Andy Liu (劉佳容), general manager of the company’s industrial automation business group, said on the sidelines of the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei on Wednesday. The company earlier reported that revenue from its automation business grew 7 percent year-on-year to NT$27.22 billion (US$889.98 million) in the first half, accounting for 11 percent
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS