TSMC hints inventory pressure is about to ease
digitimes.com
Cage Chao, Hsinchu; Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 2 December 2004]
After experiencing several months where its customers were adjusting their inventory levels, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is again seeing signs that inventory pressure is easing, according to sources within the company.
TSMC expects that its utilization rate will not drop below 80% in the first quarter of next year, and should remain flat at 86%, the sources noted.
Orders for AGP8x-platform products from Nvidia and ATI are increasing as the market is not migrating to the PCIe platform as fast as expected, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. The report also stated that Nvidia has increased the amount of its orders by 10,000 wafers per month. ATI has also increased its orders for chips made at 0.13- and 0.11-micron processes in November, according to an analyst from Fubon Securities.
Sources in TSMC’s sales unit added that inventory levels of DVD-related chips have been easing since the second quarter of this year, and demand should pick up in the first quarter of 2005.
Company sources added that orders for CMOS image sensor and driver ICs are rising, while digital-signal-processor (DSP) and baseband-IC orders should slowly pick up as well.
However, TSMC does not expect handset related inventory to ease before end of the first quarter next year, according to the Commercial Times report
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