MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest mobile phone chipmaker, yesterday drastically lowered its sales outlook for the fourth quarter, saying demand had weakened faster than expected as the global economic slowdown spread to emerging markets.
This is the latest in a slew of outlook adjustments by Taiwanese semiconductor companies this week, including the world’s top contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
On Monday, TSMC cut its fourth-quarter revenue target by more than 8 percent to between NT$63 billion (US$1.88 billion) and NT$65 billion. The chipmaker also lowered its expectation for fourth-quarter gross profit margin to between 30 percent and 32 percent and slashed its operating profit margin to between 17 percent and 19 percent, down 4 percentage points from its previous estimates.
In its filing to the stock exchange yesterday, MediaTek said revenue may plunge by more than 30 percent this quarter from NT$28.05 billion in the third quarter, rather than a decrease of between 9 percent and 16 percent estimated in October.
“The global financial storm has started to impact on demand in the emerging markets. End demand for all products is lower than expected,” the Hsinchu-based firm said in the filing.
MediaTek, which is also the biggest handset chip supplier in China, said its forecast for gross margin may hold steady this quarter at its third-quarter level of 54.3 percent, the filing states.
Last month, the company’s sales fell 32.6 percent month-on-month, or 7.6 percent year-on-year, to NT$6.2 billion, hitting the lowest level in nine months since February, it said in a separate filing yesterday.
In the first 11 months of the year, revenues amounted to NT$84.68 billion, up 13.8 percent from a year ago, it said.
Shares of MediaTek rose 0.26 percent to NT$195 yesterday, outperforming the benchmark index, which dropped 1.21 percent. However, the stock has plunged 40 percent this quarter from NT$325 on Sept. 30.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
RSS