12/20 23:58
TSMC Says Advanced Capacity Use Will Exceed 90% in Q1 (Update2)
By Alan Patterson
quote.bloomberg.com
Taipei, Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the biggest maker of chips for other companies, said it expects to use in the first quarter more than 90 percent of production capacity that fetches the highest profit margins as its largest customers place more orders.
``Demand has been stronger than expected,'' said Harvey Chang, TSMC's chief financial officer, in an interview. ``Our overall utilization rate will continue to improve.''
Orders for TSMC's most advanced capacity, which helps customers pare costs, are rising because the company has a wider variety of production technologies than rivals such as United Microelectronics Corp. The rise in capacity use at TSMC may signal longer-term improvement for the company as orders typically drop in the first quarter, some investors said.
``The surprise is how well the higher end has been taken up,'' said Devan Kaloo, who helps manage $3 billion in Asian technology stocks at Aberdeen Asset Management Ltd. ``That might reflect that TSMC's customers are doing better than UMC's.''
Capacity use at UMC, the second-largest made-to-order chip company, will probably increase to 45 percent in the fourth quarter from about 40 percent in the third quarter, Liu Chitung, UMC's manager of investor relations, said in an interview. |
