TSMC to Hold Down Capacity Expansion
May 23, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. recently issued a conservative forecast on its total capacity growth, estimating growth to be 15.5 percent in 2002, down from this year's projected 32 percent.
The company, currently the world's largest dedicated chip foundry, predicted that its annual capacity growth from 2003 onward would be maintained at between 20 percent and 30 percent, and said that 12-inch silicon-wafer fabrication plants will contribute most of the capacity increase.
TSMC's capacity-expansion projects usually affect revenues and earnings in the current year and coming year.
The company forecast that it would produce 4.5 million eight-inch equivalent wafers this year, 5.2 million next year, 6.7 million in 2003, and 10.1 million in 2005. From the growth pace between 1999 and 2005, the company's output capacity grew 80 percent last year.
TSMC analyzed that its capacity-growth pace in 2001 and 2002 will perceptibly slow down from previous years, as global foundry capacity has been overextended in past years.
TSMC's Chairman Morris Chang earlier insisted that his company would steadily expand capacity every year, regardless of the market cycle. But recently he seems to have drawn back from this view, announcing that TSMC will slow down its expansion this year and next year.
In the near future, the company will place its expansion emphasis on 12-inch factories, whose output capacity by 2005 is expected to exceed that of the company's eight-inch fabs. The company's first 12-inch fab will come on line in November this year, and its second fab will begin tooling up at the same time.
The company has set itself the goal of using its 12-inch fabs in 2003 and 2004 to save 30 percent of the production costs accounted for by its eight-inch fabs.
Related story: Taiwan's TSMC Sees 50 Pct. Drop in Capacity Utilization
(Commercial Times, Taiwan) |
