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BEIJING, October 13  (TMTPOST)— Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is cautioning gloomy prospect of the semiconductor industry even the world’s largest contract chipmaker maintained robust growth in the past quarter.

Source: Visual China

TSMC posted net revenue of NT$613.14 billion (US$20.23 billion) in the quarter ended September 30, beating the Wall Street expectation of NT$604.52 billion. The revenue, near the upper end of the company’s guidance range, represents a year-over-year growth of 47.9%. Its net income that quarter rose 79.7% YoY to a new record of NT$280.866 billion, better than the expected NT$264.66 billion. Its gross margin increased to 60.4% and set another quarterly record, topping TSMC’s guidance between 57.5% to 59.5% as well as analysts’ projection of 58.9%.

Despite of the better-than-estimated quarterly performance, TSMC tried to weather the headwinds in the near future. The Taiwan-based tech giant expected capital expenditure in the whole year to be US$36 billion, cutting by 20% from upper end of its original projection range. It has slashed the expectation to at least US$ 40 billion in July, when it disclosed financial results in the second quarter.

To lower the projected capital expenditure mainly results from the sharper-than-expeccted semiconductor inventory adjustments and uncertain factors such as the elevated inflation, Russian-Ukraine war and the rate hikes by central banks, TSMC management noted in an earnings call on Thursday. Each year’s spending was made on growth forecasts in future years, and the further cut of this year’s expected spending is based on both the medium-term business outlook and remained serious challenges on equipment delivery, the Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang explained. The chief executive C.C.Wei expected inventory reduction in the semiconductor supply chain to last for couples of quarters, even through the first half of next year. While the chip industry could be headed for recession in 2023, TSMC still see growth that year, driven by demand for advanced wafer technology in High-Performance Computing (HPC) segment, Wei told analysts.

Reports earlier Thursday said TSMC and Samsung obtained one-year waivers from the U.S. government to import chip manufacturing equipment to their facilities in mainland China. Huang confirmed the news. He added exemptions granted to TSMC’s plant located in Nanjing cover products with 28nm and 16nm technologies.

關鍵詞： TSMC Warns Chip Industry Headed Recession 2023 Despite Earnings Beat