TSMC Foresees Weak Sales in Q3/Q4 2012

As if to dispute the claims that IDC just made, Taiwan Semiconductor manufacturing Company had some worrisome things to say in its conference call with financial analysts.

The foundry believes that its sales in the third and fourth quarters of the year will leave much to be desired, due to weak global economy. A recovery will only happen next year (2013).

Meanwhile, the company will do its best to satisfy all its customers, although it said it might start dedicated whole fabs to individual clients.

“I think that’s almost a natural outcome the way market is trending. I think that they are going to be larger customers, and now it makes complete sense to dedicate a whole fab to just one customer and hold that – to hold fabs in fact to just one customer,” said CEO Morris Chang during the call.

Interestingly, “old technology” are the ones who bring TSMC the most cash. 28nm and 40nm lose to 65nm and older technologies by a lot (35% compared to 65% of the share). That means that advancing to a new node, like 20nm in 2013, won't necessarily cause a sales rebound.