Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said revenue for this quarter would be near the lower end of its guidance due to a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on the Richter scale that struck southern Taiwan last month.
The quake, which struck the southeastern part of Chaiyi County on Jan. 21, is estimated to cause TSMC losses of about NT$5.3 billion (US$161.4 million) in the first quarter, TSMC said in a statement.
However, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said its gross margin and operating margin forecasts in the quarter remain unchanged, as well as its full-year business outlook.
Photo: CNA
TSMC said the earthquake, along with several significant aftershocks throughout the Lunar New Year holiday, did not cause any structural damage to its fabs.
Water supply, power transmission, workplace safety systems and the company’s facility operations continue to function normally, it said.
However, a certain number of wafers in process were impacted and had to be scrapped due to the earthquake and aftershocks, TSMC said, without disclosing the exact numbers.
As the quake affected TSMC fabs at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區), which is a major site for producing advanced 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer process chips, the company experienced greater damage than the losses of NT$3 billion it incurred from the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the Richter scale that struck in April last year.
TSMC yesterday said it expects revenue for the first quarter to be closer to the lower end of its US$25 billion to US$25.8 billion guidance made at an earnings conference on Jan. 16.
Its gross margin is forecast to stay unchanged at between 57 percent and 59 percent, and its operating margin remains between 46.5 percent and 48.5 percent, it said.
“The company is making every effort to recover the lost production, and there is no change to our full-year outlook,” TSMC said.
At last month’s earnings conference, TSMC projected revenue for this year to grow in the mid-20s compared with the year before, citing strong artificial intelligence (AI) and recovering non-AI demand, which would outpace the overall foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth, it said.
TSMC’s remarks on the quake’s impact came as the company yesterday also reported that its consolidated revenue for last month reached NT$293.29 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent from the previous month and up 35.9 percent from a year earlier.
Last month’s revenue was the second-highest monthly sales in the company’s history, after the NT$314.24 billion it registered in October last year, TSMC data showed.
Shares in TSMC fell 1.78 percent in Taipei trading yesterday after its US depositary receipts fell 2.08 percent on Friday in New York, as the stock faces pressure from US President Donald Trump’s threats to slap tariffs on semiconductor imports.
The company is scheduled to hold a board meeting in Arizona this week, the first in TSMC’s 37-year history, and the market is speculating whether it would make any announcements to appease Trump.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS