(资料图片)

BEIJING, July 14 (TMTPOST)— Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) posted stronger-than-expected profit in the past quarter, driven by the advanced semiconductor business. However, the chipmaking giant decided to delay some of spending due to supply disruptions and cautioned against the decline in demand in longer run.

Source: Visual China

TSMC saw the net income surged 76% year-over-year (YoY) to a new record of NT$ 237.0 billion (US$7.9 billion) in the second quarter of the year, beating the Wall Street expectation of NT$219.81 billion. It also booked better-than-expected revenue of NT$534.14 billion with a 43.5% YoY increase. The gross margin further increased to 59.1%, the highest in 26 years, while analysts estimated it slightly up to 56.8% from 55.6% in the first quarter.

Semiconductors with the most advanced process technology, namely the 7nm and sub-7nm chips, contributed 51% of TSMC’s revenue, up from the previous quarter’s 50%. High-Performance Computing (HPC) maintained the position of core business for TSMC as its sales accounted for 43% of the total revenue, compared with the 41% in the first quarter. 38% of sales came from smartphone, its traditional major business, suggesting a downward trend since it notched 40% from the total revenue a quarter earlier.

TSMC gave an upbeat outlook in the current quarter, projecting the revenue to be US$ 19.8 billion to US$20.6 billion, representing a YoY rise between 33.8% and 39.2%, and the gross margin is expected to be a range of 57.5% to 59.5%. The company forecasted sales of the full year to grow about 30% as clients’ demand continues to overtake the supply capacity.

Despite the strong results and guidance, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said his company would put off some of capital expenditure, or Capex, of the year until 2023, citing supply chain challenges resulted in the longer delivery of machines. The pullback suggests TSMC’s Capex this year would drop to a level closer to the bottom of its projection range between US$40 billion and US$44 billion.

In a analysts’ call Thursday, TSMC management said next year would witness a typical down cycle of chip demand, but the slide should be a modest one, less volatile than that in the year 2008. They declined to give clear forecast about Capex for 2023 and said such forecast was too early to tell.