TSMC Sees Demand Grow in Q3 as Customers Gear Up for Holiday Sales

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and an Apple Inc supplier, said it expects a third-quarter pick-up as customers stock up on chips for new launches in time for the year-end holiday season.

Revenue for July-September is expected to reach between TWD 254 billion ($7.93 billion) and TWD 257 billion, up from the second quarter’s TWD 221.81 billion, TSMC said after announcing results for April-June on Thursday.

Supplying chips for smartphone makers is TSMC’s main business driver. TSMC’s co-Chief Executive Officer Mark Liu said that higher demand is expected to kick in for the second half, with the fourth quarter set to see its usual pick-up in demand.

Still, TSMC stuck to its forecast for revenue and operating profit to grow between 5 percent and 10 percent in 2016.

Capital expenditure for the year was revised upwards to a range between $9.5 billion and $10.5 billion, up from its earlier estimate for between $9 billion to $10 billion.

The slight increase is to do with stronger demand for its advanced technology wafer-making for next year, company executives said, speaking at an investor conference Thursday.

TSMC said earlier that net income in the April-June period totalled TWD 72.51 billion, down 8.7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, but up nearly 12 percent from the first quarter.

That beat analysts’ average estimate of TWD 67.98 billion, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Business in the second quarter, which came in a bit above the company’s own guidance given in April, was bolstered by shipments that had been delayed after a February earthquake in Taiwan.

© Thomson Reuters 2016