Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC on Thursday reported a 78 percent rise in fourth-quarter net income, setting another quarterly record as strong sales of advanced chips helped it weather a broader industry downturn that battered cheaper commodity chips.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer and a major Apple Net profit for October-December hit a record TWD295.9 crore (about Rs.79,285 crore) compared to TWD166.2 crore (about Rs.44,540 crore) last year.
This compares to the average of TWD289.44 billion (approximately Rs.77,570 crore) from 21 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
TSMC’s business was boosted by a global chip shortage sparked by pandemic-driven sales of smartphones and laptops. While the shortage has eased, analysts said its dominance in manufacturing some of the world’s most advanced chips has kept the company’s order book full.
Revenue for the quarter rose 26.7 percent to US$19.93 billion (approximately Rs.5,340 crore) from TSMC’s previous estimate of US$19.9-20.7 billion (approximately Rs.5,545 billion). .
TSMC’s stock price fell 27.1 percent in 2022 but is up 8.5 percent so far this year, giving the company a market value of $412.78 billion. Shares rose 0.4 percent on Thursday Benchmark index down 0.1 percent.
Overall, amid geopolitical tensions, the chip sector is grappling with weak demand for devices such as smartphones as inflation accelerates and interest rates rise.
In October, TSMC cut its 2022 annual capex budget by at least 10 percent and struck a more cautious note than usual on upcoming demand, pointed to challenges from rising inflation costs, and forecast a chip decline in 2023.
The company said it spent US$36.29 billion (about Rs.2.95.94 billion) on investments in 2022, compared to a previous forecast of about US$36 billion.
TSMC, Asia’s most valuable public company, whose customers include chip majors such as Qualcommhas repeatedly said the business continues to be fueled by a “megatrend” in the industry driven by demand for high-performance computing chips for 5G networks and data centers, as well as increased deployment of chips in devices and vehicles.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
