Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported record sales for last year after smashing monthly revenue records last month.
Analysts attributed the growth to robust demand for TSMC’s advanced 5-nanometer process, the latest technology the chipmaker has begun to mass produce.
Demand is being driven largely by emerging sectors, such as 5G, high-performance computing and automotive applications.
Photo Reuters
TSMC said in a statement that it posted NT$1.59 trillion (US$57.47 billion) in consolidated sales last year, up 18.5 percent from 2020.
The company’s consolidated sales stood at NT$155.38 billion last month, up 4.8 percent from a month earlier and 32.4 percent from a year earlier.
Although the fourth quarter has usually been the semiconductor industry’s slow season, TSMC still showed a month-on-month increase.
After last month’s showing, TSMC’s consolidated sales for the fourth quarter hit a new quarterly high of NT$438.19 billion, up 5.67 percent from a quarter earlier and 21.2 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s fourth-quarter revenue was in line with its forecast of between NT$431.2 billion and NT$439.6 billion, falling at the higher end of the estimate.
TSMC is to hold an investors’ conference on Thursday to detail its fourth-quarter results, and to give guidance for this quarter and the rest of the year.
Many investors have high hopes, expecting the chipmaker to announce a capital expenditure budget of more than US$40 billion for this year, to expand production capacity and upgrade its technology to maintain the advantage it has over its peers.
In a research note, a US brokerage forecast that TSMC could post a 26.1 percent annual increase in sales in US dollar terms for the year, or earnings per share of NT$29 to NT$30 per share.
For the first quarter, the brokerage forecast a 3.7 percent sequential increase in consolidated sales, as TSMC remains unaffected by the effects of the slow season.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday reported that several international tech giants, such as Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp, Qualcomm Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, have paid TSMC deposits in a bid to secure production capacity, due to the international chip supply shortage.
TSMC released its sales report before the equity market closed. The company’s shares yesterday closed up 1.42 percent at NT$643 in Taipei trading.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
SELF-SUFFICIENCY: The project would only be the beginning, as Taiwan needs at least 120 satellites to ensure uninterrupted communication, Wu Tsung-tsong said The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday said it plans to launch six low Earth orbit satellites starting in 2026 as part of the government’s plan to boost the resilience of the nation’s communications. The development of the technology gained attention after Ukrainians were able to access the Internet through Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, despite their infrastructure being severely damaged in the war with Russia. Two of the satellites would be built by the government, while four would involve cooperation between TASA and private contractors. “Over the past 30 years, the satellite technology in Taiwan has