The Tech week that was... Jan 8~12th

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly newsletter bringing you all the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world in one easy read.?

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This week, the Taiwanese Foundries and OSATs reported their December revenues and allows us an indication of how 2023 will end up for the semiconductor sector.? Generally, Foundry and OSAT revenues were down in December compared to November except for 8” specialist foundry VIS. Despite the sequential decline in December revenue, TSMC had a good Q4 overall, their 2nd consecutive quarter to show sequential growth, to narrow the decline for the full year to -4.5% YoY.? However the other foundries didn’t fare quite so well, seeing declines in Q4, and for the full year, revenues were down around -20% YoY. The OSAT’s ?saw slightly smaller yearly declines of around -10%.? Let’s hope the trend from TSMC as the industry leader spreads to the rest of the industry and we will see growth in 2024.

Taiwan Foundry Revenue Results

TSMC reported December revenue of US$5.7billion, down -14% from November, and down -8% YoY.???Q4 revenue was up 16% compared to Q3, and comparable to the same quarter in 2022, this marks the 2nd consecutive quarter where TSMC has reported sequential growth.? Thanks to the stronger 2nd half of the year, for the full year TSMC revenue was US$69.5billion, down just -4.5% YoY. TSMC will hold their Q4 earnings conf on Jan 18.

UMC reported also reported Dec revenue down sequentially -10%. ?Revenue for December was US$546million, which was down -19% YoY.? Q4 revenue declined -3.7%. For the full year UMC revenue was US$7.2billion, down -20% compared to 2022.? UMC said that it expects a turnaround this year, driven by increased shipments and better chip prices amid diminishing inventories in laptop and smartphone supply chains. UMC will hold their Q4 investor conference on 31st Jan.

Vanguard International Semi (VIS) reported December revenue of US$113million, up +20% sequentially and up +25% YoY.? Q4 revenue declined -8.4% sequentially to US$310million.? For the full year VIS reported revenue of US$1.2billion, down -26% compared to 2022.?

Powerchip reported December revenue of US$110million, down -12% sequentially and down -16% YoY.? For the full year revenue was US$1.4billion, down -16% YoY.?

Taiwan OSAT Revenue Results

ASE reported December revenue of US$835million for it’s ATM group which includes OSATs ASE & SPIL revenue, down -2% sequentially and down -10% YoY.? Q4 revenue was US$2.6billion, down -3.4% sequentially.? For the full year revenue was US$10.1billion, down -19% YoY.? ASE said that as inventory digestion in the semiconductor supply chain is coming to an end, ASE expects to return to growth this quarter with solid momentum throughout the year. ?

Powertech (PTI) reported sequentially flat December revenue of US$208million, which was up 12%, the second consecutive month of YoY growth. Q4 revenue was up sequentially +3% to US$612million. For the full year revenue was US$2.3billion, down -16%.?

Test Specialist KYEC reported December revenue of US$89million, down -2% sequentially and down -5% YoY.? Q4 revenue was US$273million, down -1% sequentially.? For the full year revenue was US$1.06billion, down -10% YoY.

Other industry news

Samsung Electronics issued it’s guidance for Q4’23 and expects to post its sixth straight quarter of declining operating profit, reflecting weak consumer demand and stoking uncertainty over the timing of a broader tech recovery.? Samsungs revenue is expected to fall -4.9% YoY to around US$50billion, and is effectively flat sequentially.? The company said “looking ahead to 2024, PC and mobile demand is likely to benefit from the arrival of some replacement cycles for products sold during the initial phase of the pandemic,”

Renesas has announced it will acquire Transphorm for about US$339 million.? Californian headquartered Transphorm designs and manufactures high performance and high reliability GaN semiconductors for high voltage power conversion applications.? The acquisition is expected to complete in the 2nd half of 2024.

CES opened this week in Las Vegas, with artificial intelligence (AI) infused into most of the exhibits and being the common theme leading the innovation.? CES has more than 3,500 exhibitors and is expecting around 130,000 visitors.

In market research news

Global semiconductor industry sales totalled $48.0 billion in November 2023, an increase of +5.3% YoY and a sequential growth of +2.9% compared to October according to the latest data from WSTS. ?John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO said that “Global semiconductor sales increased on a year-to-year basis in November for the first time since August 2022, an indication that the global chip market is continuing to gain strength as we enter the new year,” and “Looking ahead, the global semiconductor market is projected to experience double-digit growth in 2024.”

Global shipments of traditional PCs marginally surpassed expectations in the Q4 2023 with nearly 67.1 million PCs shipped, down -2.7% from the prior year, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC). There is hope that the market contractions appear to have bottomed out and growth is expected in 2024.? Despite the improved results, Q4 was the eighth consecutive quarter of YoY shipment volume contraction. ?There is hope that AI can help drive sales in 2024, as AMD and Intel are betting on AI PC’s to battle Nvidia's chip dominance in AI

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Stay safe and healthy... bye

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