TSMC Zhang Zhongmou: Orders Not Affected by the Great Earthquake in Japan

Although Japan's strong earthquake hit suppliers, TSMC chairman Zhang Zhongmou said he is optimistic about the demand for mobile chips this year. TSMC is setting up its second manufacturing plant in Shanghai. Due to the adoption of more advanced technologies, it can reduce costs and increase production capacity.

In terms of revenue, TSMC is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer.

In an interview in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Zhang Zhongmou said on Friday that he was looking for new wafer suppliers and requested suppliers of raw materials to increase shipments to ensure that chip production was not affected.

Compared with the attitude of the technology company last week, TSMC's statement is completely different.

On Friday, Sony said that due to the earthquake and tsunami, the six factories are still closed. On Thursday, flash memory maker Toshiba said that one of its Japanese LCD makers was damaged and that it would take one month to recover.

In the past few years, the demand for tablets and smart phones has increased greatly. Global chip makers have continuously increased their production capacity and invested billions of dollars. The earthquake in Japan has caused investors to worry about whether there are too many global component suppliers.

Zhang Zhongmou said: “Our Japanese customers have not reduced their orders.” In terms of U.S. dollars, TSMC’s revenue target this year is to increase by 20%, pre-tax profits by 10%, and by 2015, return on equity will exceed 20%. Last year, TSMC’s revenue was 13.3 billion U.S. dollars, and its revenue is expected to reach 15.9 billion U.S. dollars this year.

In Japan, most chip designers do not own production plants themselves, and these Japanese customers contribute 5-10% of TSMC’s total revenue. At the same time, Japan is also a key raw material supplier, such as wafers and advanced production equipment.

Tokyo Electron provided TSMC with custom chip equipment. Zhang Zhongmou said it will resume production soon; Tokyo Electronics was not damaged by the tsunami, but operations were suspended.

TSMC's customers include AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc. It is trying hard to enter the wireless and mobile device market. It is precisely because of this that TSMC has continuously expanded its production capacity. However, the competition in the chip foundry market has become increasingly fierce, such as the Globalfoundries competition.

Zhang Zhongmou said: “We have increased capacity because customers want chips. Our opponents think that they can get some market through new capacity, but I do not think so.”

TSMC has opened a second chip factory in mainland China in Shanghai, with a size of 8 inches. Zhang Zhongmou said that through the new factory, it can maintain closer cooperation with mainland customers. After the completion of the new plant next year, TSMC’s capacity in China will be equivalent to 130,000 8-inch round crystals per month, twice the current level.