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Samsung may spend $200 billion on 11 Texas fabs over 20 years
TAP TIMES -19-
Top 10 (from 18)
Turning to UMC, its revenue went up by
1.3% QoQ to around $2.48 billion for
3Q22.
Stronger U.S. dollar
UMC’s performance was bolstered by the
strengthening of the U.S. dollar and the
newly added 28nm production capacity
that outputs higher-priced wafers.
GlobalFoundries posted a QoQ rise of 4.1%
in revenue to around $2.07 billion. The
growth was attributed to a QoQ increase in
wafer shipments as well as further optimi-
zation in wafer ASP and product mix.
Furthermore, GlobalFoundries has been
maintaining its capacity utilization rate
above 90%.
Inventory reduction
Taking the last spot in the group of the top
five, SMIC posted a slight QoQ increase of
0.2% in revenue to around $1.91 billion.
SMIC has a product mix that is skewed
towards consumer semiconductor compo-
nents, so it saw smaller QoQ increases as
well as QoQ declines in revenue perfor-
mances across different applications and
product categories as its clients had been
focusing on inventory reduction.
This was especially noticeable for chips
used in smartphones and several kinds
of consumer electronics. Nevertheless,
SMIC’s revenue kept climbing because the
optimization of its wafer ASP offset the is-
sue with its product mix and the slide in its
wafer shipments.
The US government further expanded its
export controls against China on October
7, and this development has definitely
affected SMIC as its clients have become
more hesitant in ramping up wafer inputs.
JANUARY 2023
TSMC’s highly automated Fab 15 continued to crank out chips
(and profits) during the year. (TSMC)
However, in capital expenditure, SMIC is
taking the opposite approach compared
to most other foundries that have scaled
back because of the changes in the market
environment and the issue with the lead
time for equipment orders.
Against the headwinds
Against headwinds, SMIC has raised its
capital expenditures for 2022 by 32% to
$6.6 billion.
SMIC wants to speed up new equipment
purchases for its three new fabs located
in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai to
minimize the risks associated with the US
export controls. Hence, it has raised capi-
tal expenditure in order to make advance
payments on the new equipment that is
set for deployment in 2023.
Among the foundries placed from sixth to
10th in the 3Q22 revenue ranking, Hua-
Hong Group and Tower posted a QoQ rev-
enue increase, whereas PSMC, VIS, and
Nexchip recorded a QoQ drop.
Nexchip experienced the largest decline
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