No wafer shortage for TSMC

MUNICH, Germany – Leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. does not expect to see any short- to medium term supply-side disruption from the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, according to Maria Marced, president of TSMC Europe.

Speaking on the sidelines of the GSA & IET International Semiconductor Forum being held here, Marced said that TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) had secured all the prime wafer supply that it requires. This is despite the closure of a Shin-Etsu plant in northern Japan that reportedly is responsible for about 20 percent of the 300-mm diameter raw wafers. That plant is expected to come back up to pre-quake capacity by the end of June to early July.

"There is no supply-side impact, except perhaps on chipmaking equipment, but the lead times on that are so long that it should not affect us some time and we should be able to juggle things around," said Marced.

However, Marced did indicate that there could be some demand-side impact. "Not our customers, but our customers' customers may be facing problems. If they reduce output because of a missing component or material it can affect demand at our customers," she said. Nonetheless TSMC has not reduced its second quarter or full guidance.

For the full year the company expects to achieve 20 percent revenue growth in an overall semiconductor market that will only grow by 2 percent.


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