Q3 Foundry Revenues

Q3 foundry revenue is projected to growth by 14% YoY, says TrendForce.

While TSMC’s 3Q20 revenue benefits from 5nm mass production, GlobalFoundries is expected to have the Q3 greatest YoY decrease in the top 10.

TSMC’s Q3 revenue is projected to grow by 21% YoY, with its 7nm process technology contributing to most of the foundry’s revenue performance.

TSMC is able to maintain maximum capacity utilisation rate at its 7nm production lines thanks to strong demand from continued 5G infrastructure build-out and CPU/GPU demand from high-performance computing applications and WFH arrangements.

TSMC will begin including revenue from its 5nm process technology into its quarterly revenue calculations in 3Q20.

The foundry is currently aiming to have revenue from its 5nm process technology account for 8% of its total yearly revenue. 

TrendForce thus projects TSMC to derive 16% of its 3Q20 revenue from its 5nm process technology.

Samsung’s Q3 foundry revenues are expected to grow by about 4% YoY.

GloFo is expected to see Q3 revenues fall 3% in Q3 due to its sale of 8-inch and 12-inch fabs in 2019 and declining demand for automotive chips.

UMC’s 8-inch capacity is expected to remain in short supply until 2021. By raising prices on some of its foundry services, UMC will likely improve its Q3 revenue 23% YoY.

Products manufactured with legacy process technologies (above 14nm, 28nm) account for more than 90% SMIC’s revenue. As SMIC’s 3Q19 revenue was a relatively low base period for comparison, its revenue is expected to increase by 16% YoY in 3Q20.

Retaining its focus on RF-SOI and SiGe development, TowerJazz’s 8-inch capacity utilisation rate is estimated to hover around the 70% mark. As the foundry continues to expand its 12-inch capacity, TowerJazz’s revenue is projected to grow by about 3% YoY in 3Q20.

PSMC is continuing to expand its foundry business and see increased wafer input demand for DDI, TDDI, CIS, PMIC, and power discretes (MOSFET and IGBT).

By raising its capacity utilisation rate and the price of its foundry services, PSMC is likely to register a 26% YoY revenue growth in 3Q20, the highest percentage among the top 10 foundries.