Q1 Forecast Disappointing for Foundry Sales

Article By : Dylan McGrath

Semiconductor foundry revenue growth is stalling due to weak demand for advanced production processes in several end markets — including smartphones — according to one market watcher.

Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce forecasts that first-quarter global foundry sales will fall to $14.6 billion, down 16% compared to the first quarter of 2018.

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The top 10 foundries in terms of sales remain unchanged in the first quarter compared with last year, according to TrendForce’s estimates. However, each of the top 10 companies experienced a double-digit decline in sales compared with the first quarter of last year, according to the firm.

TSMC remains far and away the largest foundry, with first-quarter market share of 48.1%. However, the foundry giant’s first-quarter sales are on track to decline 17.8% compared to the first quarter of 2018, according to TrendForce.

TrendForce attributed TSMC’s first-quarter revenue decline partially to a defective photoresist issue that forced the company to scrap as many as 30,000 wafers last month. But the market research firm also blamed the sales shortfall on lower-than-expected sales among its smartphone customers and a drop in the market for cryptocurrency mining.

TrendForce said that it expects TSMC’s sales for the rest of 2019 to be boosted by first-quarter shipments that slipped to the second quarter as well as increased sales from customers such as HiSilicon, Qualcomm, Apple, and AMD. “We may get a chance to see TSMC’s revenue climb its way out of the 1Q19 valley season by season,” TrendForce said in a statement.