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TSMC revenues rise 11 percent; No. 3 globally

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenues rose 11.8 percent last year, ranking No. 3 among the world’s top semiconductor firms, according to consultancy firm Gartner’s statistics.

First place was taken by Germany-based Infineon Technologies, which notched up 16.5 percent in growth.

Samsung, a close competitor of TSMC, registered 11.8-percent growth to grab the second place.

The top performers managed to beat the slumping trend in the industry, which averaged a 1.9-percent decline in 2015.

TSMC reported last week that it had grossed NT$843.49 billion for the whole year. The number, if affirmed as true at Thursday’s investor conference, will mark a new record for the semiconductor giant.

Firms in Asia in general performed better than their Western counterparts, according to Gartner’s statistics.

Leading firms in the U.S. such as Intel, Qualcomm and Micron Technology all posted negative growth in 2015, by 1.2 percent, 17.4 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively.

Texas Instruments showed 0 percent growth, while Geneva-based STMicroelectronics slipped 6.6 percent.

Sergis Mushell, research director at Gartner, said “weakened demand for key electronic equipment, the continuing impact of the strong dollar in some regions and elevated inventory are to blame for the decline in the market in 2015.”

Performance Breakdown

by Products

In regards to product categories, 2015 saw a mixed performance with optoelectronics, non-optical sensors, analog and ASIC reporting revenue growth while the rest saw declines, the research director noted.

Thanks to demand from Apple, the ASIC segment posted the largest growth of 2.4 percent, followed by analog and non-optical sensors with 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent growth, respectively.

Memory, the most volatile segment of the semiconductor industry, recorded a 0.6-percent dip. More specifically, DRAM saw negative growth while NAND flash experienced growth.

Looking forward, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) indicated recently that 2016 will be better than 2015, given that inventory adjustment is almost over and that its 16-nanometer product is gaining size in market share.

Manufacturing capacity of TSMC grew 14 percent in 2015 to churn out 1.89 million chips on a monthly basis, ranking No. 2 in the world, according to data from IC Insights.

Investment Plan in

China Undecided

TSMC applied to the Economics Ministry in December to set up a 12-nanometer facility in China.

The ministry’s Investment Commission said then the decision could be out within two months, or before the Chinese New Year at the earliest.

The commission said Tuesday, however, that the Industrial Development Bureau under the Economics Ministry has yet to set up a technical task force to review the matter. As such, the commission said it is not certain if it will review the investment plan before the end of January.

The government only relaxed the rule in the past September to allow for such investment.

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