Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported record high quarterly sales for the third quarter on Friday, beating the company’s forecast.
TSMC posted consolidated sales of NT$613.14 billion (US$19.36 billion) in the July-September period, up 14.79 percent from a quarter earlier, the company said in a statement.
The third quarter revenue slightly exceeded TSMC’s sales forecast of between NT$588.06 billion and NT$611.82 billion it made in mid-July for the third quarter based on an assumption that the exchange rate would be NT$29.70 against the U.S. dollar.
Analysts said the strong showing came amid strong global demand for TSMC’s high-end 7 nanometer and 5nm processes for emerging applications such as data centers and automotive electronics, which offset global weakness in consumer electronics devices such as smartphones and PCs.
The 5nm process is the latest technology that TSMC produces at commercial scale, with the more advanced 3nm process scheduled to kick off mass production later this year.
Strong U.S. dallor
Analysts said a weaker Taiwan dollar also contributed to higher sales for TSMC when its sales were converted into the local currency from the U.S. dollar.
At the end of the third quarter, the U.S. dollar closed at NT$31.743 as foreign investors scrambled to move their funds out of Taiwan due to aggressive interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
In September alone, TSMC said it generated consolidated sales of NT$208.25 billion, down 4.5 percent from a record high of NT$218.13 billion in August. The September figure, however, was still 36.4 percent higher than a year earlier, the chipmaker said.
In the first nine months of 2022, TSMC’s consolidated sales rose 42.6 percent from a year earlier to about NT$1.64 trillion, the chipmaker added.
Company to give Q4 guidance
TSMC has scheduled an investor conference for Oct. 13 to detail its third quarter results and give guidance for the fourth quarter.
Analysts said that as its major clients continue to launch new devices, TSMC is expected to enjoy stable operations in the fourth quarter to boost its annual consolidated sales above the NT$2 trillion level for the first time.
With the global economy facing uncertainty over inflation and rate hikes, however, the market is watching whether TSMC will continue to raise product prices for 2023.
In early September, TSMC reiterated that the company’s sales will continue to grow in 2023 and left unchanged its forecast for revenue growth in the mid-30 percent range in U.S. dollar terms for 2022.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel