TSMC expects second-half surge

TSMC forecasts 1 percent growth for the semicon market and 5 percent for foundries this year.

TSMC, the world's largest foundry, projects that it will emerge from an industry slowdown sometime during the second half of this year.

The company, which dominates the foundry business with a 54.3 percent market share, faces overall sales growth that decelerated to 4.4 percent in 2015 from 16 percent in the previous year, according to Gartner.

Foundries have led growth in the semiconductor industry, yet have faced slowing sales as a result of excess IC inventory, poor demand for mobile and computing products and slumping tablet demand. TSMC said its YoY revenue growth will probably not rebound until the latter half of 2017, driven by demand for high-end smartphones.

"In the second half of this year, we will see higher growth," TSMC co-CEO CC Wei said in a meeting announcing the company's 1Q2016 results.

For the time being, the outlook for the company, which counts Apple as its biggest customer, is less than sanguine.

To read the full article, go to EETimes.

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