Taiwan-based pure-play foundries including TSMC, United Microelectronics (UMC), Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) are all poised to see their third-quarter revenues hit record highs again, as they are encouraged to raise quotes further to reflect tight capacity, according to industry sources.
UMC has raised its foundry quotes by 10-15% with the new prices becoming effective starting July, said the sources.
Strong IC demand for automotive and HPC applications will be pushing up foundry quotes through 2022, the sources indicated. Foundries, particularly those who had been keeping their operating margins at low levels before 2021, have managed to boost their margin performance by raising their quotes.
UMC is on track to see its gross margin top 30% in the second quarter, thanks to its fully utilized fab capacity and rising foundry quotes, market observers believe.
TSMC, which has about half of its wafer sales generated from advanced process technologies to support its relatively high margins, has also disclosed it is looking to firm up its wafer prices to reasonable levels. "We face manufacturing cost challenges due to increasing process complexity at leading nodes, new investment in mature nodes, and rising material costs," said company CEO CC Wei at a recent earnings call.
PSMC has disclosed its 12- and 8-inch fab capacities are already being fully booked for 2022, and talks with clients for capacity in 2023 are underway.
PSMC's gross margin may have topped 40% already, and is expected to climb further in the second half of this year, the observers indicated.
PSMC intends to raise its quotes to fair and reasonable levels amid tight capacity that may persist through the end of 2022, company chairman Frank Huang was quoted as saying in previous reports.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
