21st Century Business Herald reporter Ni Yuqing Shenzhen report
In 2022, the performance of TSMC, the leader in chip manufacturing, hit a new high.
htmlOn April 14, TSMC released its first quarter financial report for 2022, with revenue in the first quarter of NT$491.08 billion (approximately RMB 107.8 billion), an increase of 35.5% year-on-year, and net profit of NT$202.73 billion (approximately RMB 44.5 billion), an increase of 45.1% year-on-year; the quarterly gross profit margin was as high as 55.6%, operating profit margin was 45.6%, and net profit margin was 41.3%.
Although Samsung and Intel are attacking wafer foundry, TSMC still maintains the top spot and continues to grow in the current market. In the face of chip shortage, the market is in short supply and the increase in wafer prices has also increased the overall profit. TSMC said that in addition to prices, cost improvements and more favorable exchange rates have helped boost gross profit margins.
On the other hand, the growth drivers at the terminal application level mainly come from HPC (High Performance Computing Market) and Automotive (Automotive Market), both of which have revenues increased by 26% year-on-year.
, especially the HPC sector. In the first quarter of 2021, smartphones and HPC contributed 45% and 35% of revenue to TSMC respectively. By 2022, the proportion of HPC has surpassed smartphones, reaching 41%, which is equal to 40% of smartphones. This is also a reflection of the global digital trend, and the demand for computing chips in data centers, servers, etc. is still growing.
The original proportion of the automotive field was relatively small, but its share is increasing year by year, and it is currently reaching 5%. Behind it, it is benefiting from the growth of new energy vehicles and the capacity scheduling under the chip shortage. The smartphone market with the smallest growth rate was the smartphone market, with only 1%. Under the influence of multiple factors in the first quarter, demand for the mobile phone market continued to sluggish.
From the process classification, the revenue share of 5nm has further increased, from 14% to 20%, and 7nm has dropped from 35% to 30%. The total proportion of the two has reached 50%, and the revenue share of advanced processes has further increased. At the performance meeting, TSMC President Wei Zhejia said that the company expects 3-nanometer (N3) process chips to be mass-produced in the second half of 2022. At the same time, customers also have high participation in the more advanced N3E process, and are expected to be mass-produced one year after 3nm is put into production.
Recently, there is also news that TSMC will set up a new factory at the end of 2022 to be responsible for the production of 2nm process chips, and plans to start mass production in 2024, which is one year ahead of the original capacity plan.
Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2022, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from structural growth in HPC and automobiles, but partly offset by the seasonality of smartphones. Revenue in the second quarter is expected to be between US$17.6 billion and US$18.2 billion, and gross profit margin is expected to be between 56% and 58%.
Wei Zhejia also said that the company's production capacity is currently expected to be tight throughout the year, and will maintain its capital expenditure plan in 2022, with a plan to invest US$40 billion to US$44 billion to expand production capacity.
Last year, Wei Zhejia said that in the next few years, applications related to 5G and HPC will still have a strong demand for advanced processes, and the epidemic has fundamentally accelerated the digital transformation, making semiconductors more popular and indispensable in people's lives. Driven by supply chain disruptions, uncertainty caused by the epidemic and geopolitical tensions are causing short-term imbalances in the supply chain.
To this end, TSMC is working hard to increase production capacity, increase production, and solve structural growth in long-term demand. "We are building new factories, recruiting employees, and expanding production in multiple locations. TSMC is expected to invest about $100 billion in the next three years to increase production capacity to support the development of cutting-edge technology R&D and manufacturing, increase production capacity to enhance supply certainty for our customers, and enhance the semiconductor industry's confidence in the global supply chain," said TSMC executives.
Since the beginning of this year, the international environment has been changing. Faced with the new situation, Wei Zhejia said that TSMC is working closely with suppliers and taking multiple actions to meet supply chain challenges. "We have added regular and frequent communication to track progress. We have sent several teams to support suppliers and work closely to ensure the delivery of key chips."
Overall, on the one hand, the volume of the wafer foundry market continues to grow, and the world is expanding production around the world.In the World Fab Forecast Report, the International Semiconductor Association SEMI pointed out that global front-end fab equipment expenditure in 2022 is expected to increase by 18% compared with the same period last year, reaching a new high of US$107 billion. After a 7% increase in 2021, global production capacity will grow by 8% this year and 6% in 2023. On the other hand, the competition among wafer foundry companies is even hotter, with manufacturers such as TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SMIC, and Huahong all competing at multiple levels such as capital, production capacity, mature processes, and advanced processes.
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