14 DAY TRIAL // With the troubles striking Japan, practically every aspect of the world's economy should feel some effect, but it seems certain companies will get away more or less scot-free, one of them being none other than TSMC.
Even now the consequences of the natural disaster that hit Japan on March 11, 2011 are being felt around the world.
Not only have at least 18,000 people lost their lives, but a nuclear power plant continues to leak radiation and stay in danger of reactor meltdown.
Meanwhile, many facilities have been shut down because of power outages or even damage, while workers even sustained injuries.
Either way, the IT market will be hit pretty hard, especially global chip production, to the point where even Moore's Law might be affected.
What this means is that Intel might not be able to advance to a newer and better manufacturing process on time.
Nevertheless, even with all these troubles, one company seems to be going forward without much, if any, negative effects from the earthquake and tsunami.
None other than TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is reported to have seen no order cancellations from Japan.
What's more, even if more serious damage had been incurred, Japan only accounts for 5-10% of its total revenues, so the consequences would probably not have been that severe anyway.
In other words, its supply chain was not disrupted, meaning that the world-class foundry still expects its yearly revenues to rise by 20%, from the NT$419.5 billion of 2010 (US$14 billion).
For those that need a reminder, TSMC is the major supplier of wafers for many sorts of chips, including graphics processing units for both NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices.
It hopes to see a revenue increase of 3-5% for the first quarter (NT$105-107 billion), meaning that March will have to bring in NT$40 million, 25% more than in February, considering that the first two months together totaled NT$66 billion.