TSMC sales in April hit second-highest monthly level

Taipei, May 10 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said Friday that its April sales hit the second-highest monthly level in company history, with market analysts attributing the strong showing to an emerging technology boom.

In a statement, TSMC said it posted NT$236.02 billion (US$7.27 billion) in consolidated sales in April, up 59.6 percent from a year earlier and up 20.9 percent from a month earlier.

The April sales only trailed the NT$243.20 billion recorded in October 2023 and surpassed the NT$200 billion level for the first time since January, when the figure stood at NT$215.79 billion.

Strong demand

Analysts said due to strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) devices, TSMC's clients placed large orders for the advanced 3 nanometer and 5nm processes, which pushed up the chipmaker's sales sharply in April.

The 3nm process is the latest technology which TSMC started mass production of at the end of 2022.

In the first quarter, sales from chips made using the advanced 3-nanometer process accounted for 9 percent of the total revenue in January-March. Revenue from the 5nm process made up 37 percent.

Analysts said strong demand for emerging technologies helped TSMC move forward from the impact of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Hualien on April 3, which caused brief disruptions in the chipmaker's production.

According to TSMC, the temblor led to a loss of about NT$3 billion.

In the first four months of this year, TSMC's consolidated sales totaled NT$828.67 billion, up 26.2 percent from a year earlier.

Q2 forecast

In an investor conference held in mid-April, TSMC gave guidance saying April-June sales are expected to range between US$19.6 billion and NT$20.4 billion, with the median figure predicting around a 6 percent rise from a quarter earlier.

TSMC has said the April-June period is likely to be the strongest-ever second quarter in the company's history.

The chipmaker made the second quarter guidance based on an exchange rate of NT$32.3 to US$1.

In Taiwan dollar terms, therefore, TSMC could generate NT$198.6 billion and NT$211.5 billion on average in May and June.

As for 2024, TSMC has left its guidance unchanged, saying sales are expected to rise 21-26 percent from a year earlier due to increasing shipments of AI servers, despite the company cutting its sales forecasts for the global semiconductor and pure play wafer foundry business.

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