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https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20181120PD211.html

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to post record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2018, although many others in the semiconductor sector have turned conservative about the quarter and even 2019 due to the intensifying US-China trade war, weakening of crypto mining demand and lackluster smartphone sales, according to industry sources.

The sources said that aided by strong 7nm foundry orders and mounting ratio of revenues from the advanced process, TSMC is likely to see its fourth-quarter 2018 revenues hit a new quarterly high.

Although Apple has reportedly cut orders for A12 chipsets for new iPhones, TSMC expects to complete over 100 tape-outs for 7nm and 7nm EUV processes in 2019, up from 50 in 2018, to fulfill orders from major chipmakers including HiSilicon, Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia and Xilinx next year, the sources said.

The foundry giant has recently issued optimistic forecasts about 7nm foundry revenue prospects for next few years, with annual revenues from the service to grow steadily to the range of US$10-12 billion. Industry sources said that TSMC would be able to maintain stable revenue expansion should the US-China trade conflicts not worsen in the future.

After scoring record-high quarterly revenues for the third quarter of 2018, TSMC's affiliated foundry house Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) is also more optimistic than most other peers about prospects for the fourth quarter, mainly bolstered by robust demand for driver ICs for 2K and 4K large-size TVs and for discrete power devices and power management ICs.

But the company has turned conservative about revenue prospects for 2019 due to a spate of uncertainties arising from the US-China trade spats, the IMF having lowered global GDP growth forecast for 2018 and 2019, and the US hiking interest rates.

On another front, many iconic players in different semiconductor segments have turned conservative about revenue prospects for fourth-quarter 2018 and for 2019, including Applied Materials, chipmakers Nvidia and MediaTek, as undesirable factors are combining to dim the prospects, including the waning crypto mining fever, smartphone sales slowdown, and DRAM oversupply.