Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it expects the overall semiconductor industry to return to growth next year after a prolonged period of inventory correction.
TSMC said that is a positive sign for the industry, which might head for a recovery next quarter.
“Inventory correction in the industry would be mostly finished by the end of this year,” TSMC co-chief executive officer Mark Liu (劉德音) said in a keynote speech during the company’s annual Supply Chain Management Forum in Hsinchu.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
“When we enter next year with a healthy level of inventory, we expect the semiconductor industry to return to growth trajectory,” Liu said.
Two months ago, Liu said he was not sure about the inventory correction issue and told investors that some uncertainties remained for the industry this quarter.
In October, TSMC cut its forecast for the world semiconductor industry’s revenue growth to zero this year from its previously estimated annual expansion of 3 percent.
The company is expected to outstrip the overall semiconductor industry next year, thanks to a market share gain from the 16-nanometer (nm) technology, Liu said, adding that the new technology would help the chipmaker continue to grow its annual revenue next year.
This year, TSMC is likely to grow its revenue by double digits from last year’s NT$762.81 billion (US$23.16 billion), partly because of the New Taiwan dollar’s depreciation against the US dollar and the company’s advances in technology, Liu said.
TSMC started mass producing 16nm chips in the third quarter and expects to launch a compact version of 16nm chips, mostly for low-end smartphones, in the second quarter of next year and start producing 10nm chips from the fourth quarter of next year, he said.
The company plans to start construction of a new production line in February at its Taichung factory, which is expected to produce 10nm chips to be used in various applications such as mobile phones, he said.
In its effort to push for more advanced technologies, TSMC is scheduled to start early production of 7nm chips in the first quarter of 2017 and is preparing to develop 5nm technology, Liu said.
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