6.5% fall in monthly revenue in October 2013 for TSMC
Date: 08/11/2013
Is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) losing its strong grip over 28 nm foundry business! The latest revenue figures from TSMC for October month of 2013 indicates something like that.
TSMC has reported its net revenues for October 2013 (On a consolidated basis) were approximately NT$51.80 billion, a decrease of 6.5 percent from September 2013 and an increase of 3.6 percent over October 2012.
However the revenues for January through October 2013 totaled NT$503.01 billion, an increase of 18.3 percent compared to the same period in 2012.
Compare this to the TSMC's October 2012 revenue, TSMC had reported a net sales were approximately NT$49.28 billion, an increase of 15.1 percent over September 2012 and an increase of 32.3 percent over October 2011.
There are chances that TSMC 's 28 nm node may not be getting that big orders. The reasons may be TSMC's own 20 nm offering or cheaper foundry services offering from UMC and SMIC in 28 nm nodes. And also the tight competition from GlobalFoundries and Samsung. If the quarterly revenue for TSMC ending Dec 31 2013 also see a fall, the picture may get more clearer.
The more clear indicator is, the foundry services business is becoming more competitive with the entry of Intel into foundry business.
However the 16 nm finFET process to help TSMC in maintaining lead over its competitors in year 2014.
