The four leading foundries in Taiwan - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), United Microelectronics (UMC), Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) - together generated a total of US$89.4 billion in revenues in 2022, soaring 31% from a year ago.
However, they still experienced the first on-quarter revenue decline since the COVID-19 pandemic in fourth-quarter 2022.
Going into 2023, with the IT industry undergoing inventory correction on top of a slow season, the foundries' combined revenues for the first quarter is set to exhibit another sequential decline, estimated to exceed 10%, and the first on-year deceleration since second-quarter 2019. The weak global economy will also dampen the whole-year 2023 revenue growth momentum.
Table 1: Key factors affecting Taiwan wafer foundry industry, 4Q22 and 1Q23: Demand and supply
Table 2: End product shipments and their influences on chip demand, 2022 and 2023
Table 3: Key factors affecting Taiwan's wafer foundry industry, 2023: Demand and supply
Chart 1: Taiwan key wafer foundry revenues, 1Q22-1Q23 (US$b)
Chart 5: Taiwan key wafer foundry annual revenues, 2019-2023 (US$b)
