TSMC likely to see flat 2Q18 revenues, say reports

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Apr. 16, 2018 – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to report flat sequential revenue growth for the second quarter with a possibility of a slight increase or decrease, Chinese-language Commercial Times and Economic Daily News (EDN) have quoted market watchers as saying in recent reports.

A slowdown in ASIC demand for cryptocurrency mining is being identified as the main cause of the watchers' less optimistic second-quarter revenue outlook for TSMC, according to the reports.

TSMC is likely to post an up to 3% sequential increase in second-quarter revenues, but possibly a 1-2% drop due to weaker-than-expected demand for ASICs and handset chips, the Commercial Times report said.

TSMC has seen Bitmain cut back on orders recently, the EDN report indicated. The foundry is also slowing down its pace of materials orders which may indicate orders thus far in 2018 are not as strong as they were a year ago, the report said.

Disappointing chip demand for Apple devices will likely prompt TSMC to give a less optimistic outlook for the second quarter, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) quoted Hua Nan Securities Investment Management chairman David Chu as saying in a report. Orders for cryptocurrency mining will be key sustaining the foundry's revenue growth in the second quarter.

In addition, TSMC's progress of its more advanced 7nm process technology is definitely the world's leading, but whether its major clients are able to keep up with its pace by placing orders just in time will be more crucial, Chu was cited as indicating in the CNA report.

TSMC is scheduled to hold its quarterly investors meeting on April 19.

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