The world’s top 10 foundries, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), are expected to see accelerated revenue growth this quarter, as a persistent chip crunch drives prices even higher, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast yesterday.
The Taipei-based researcher expects the top 10 foundries’ sequential revenue growth this quarter would outpace the 6.2 percent growth they posted last quarter.
“A shortage of foundry capacity, which began in the second half of 2019, has persisted and even intensified for nearly two years,” TrendForce said in a note, adding that some foundries have expanded capacity, but it was not enough to alleviate the shortage.
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Moreover, as the world’s major foundries last quarter began boosting auto chip production, it has squeezed capacity allocation for chips used in other applications, TrendForce said.
That has compounded the shortage and led to a new wave of price increases, it said.
Last quarter, the top 10 foundries made US$24.41 billion in aggregate revenue, posting a record high for an eighth consecutive quarter.
TSMC’s revenue increased 3.1 percent quarter-on-quarter to US$13.3 billion last quarter, which gave it a market share of 52.9 percent, TrendForce said.
TSMC’s revenue growth lagged behind the other foundries in the top 10 list because of its stable pricing strategy and capacity losses after a power outage at its Fab14 P7 in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in April and a brief production disruption when the Hsinta Power Plant (興達電廠) in Kaohsiung temporarily went offline in May.
Samsung Electronics Co ranked the second-biggest foundry in the world with a market share of 17.3 percent.
The South Korean company’s revenue expanded 5.5 percent quarterly to US$4.33 billion after its fab in Texas resumed full production in April after a winter storm in February brought its production to a halt.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) ranked third with a market share of 7.2 percent.
The Taiwanese company’s revenue climbed 8.5 percent quarterly to US$1.82 billion last quarter, benefiting from strong customer demand for power management ICs, Wi-Fi and driver ICs used in OLED products, as well as a 5 percent price hike, TrendForce said.
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