The performance in the second half of the year is expected to be high

Jun 13, 2013 13:52 GMT  ·  By

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's premier manufacturer of semiconductors, has high hopes from the second half of 2013.

Essentially, consolidated sales and profits, according to chairman and CEO Morris Chang, will climb to record highs for the whole year.

Demand from the smartphone and tablet markets has been strong for some time, and will stay strong, perhaps even rise, for the remainder of 2013.

And since TSMC is already testing 20nm chips, it will start mass-producing them by early 2014, which might bring another year of records.

Chang was able to make these forecasts thanks to “pretty good” industry conditions and order visibility.

Right now, TSMC has orders covered for the next three to four months, and can make educated guesses based on that.

On a related note, 16nm FinFET technology might go into volume production in 2014 as well, provided the test runs start in 2013 as planned.