After the earthquake, the loss was not good. TSMC revised the Q1 gross profit margin and depreciated the revenue.

TSMC (2330-TW) (TSM-US) Nanke Plant suffered a higher-than-expected damage to the Tainan earthquake in the New Year's Eve. It is announced today (17) that 120,000 wafer shipments will be postponed to the second quarter in the first quarter. At the same time, the gross profit margin for the first quarter was revised to 44% to 46%, a decrease of 3 percentage points. However, the first quarter revenue was revised up to 2010-203 billion yuan due to the depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar and the business volume increased slightly by 0.99~ 1.5%.

TSMC said that although the earthquake did not have a structural impact on the plants of Wafer Six, Wafer 14A and Wafer 14B in Tainan, the supply of water, electricity and various gases did not cause serious damage. The damage, but the damage to the wafer in production, is more serious than the assessment previously issued on the day of the earthquake.


In addition, the time required for the equipment recovery of Wafer 14A and the less damaged wafer 6 plant was longer than previously estimated.

After the earthquake, TSMC said it had done everything it could to make up all the affected wafers, but it is still expected that wafer shipments in the first quarter will be delayed. Shipment of Wafer 14A will be delayed by 10 to 50 days, and shipment time of 100,000 12-inch wafers will be extended from the first quarter to the second quarter; shipments from Wafer 6 will be delayed. 5 to 20 days, and 20,000 8-inch wafer shipments are postponed to the second quarter.

TSMC also said that the impact of the earthquake on Wafer 14 Plant B was minimal, as other sites in the Hsinchu Science Park and Taichung Science Park were not affected.

TSMC said that it is estimated that the first quarter revenue will be between 2010 and 20 billion yuan, higher than the estimated 1980-2010 billion yuan on January 14. In addition, the recent increase in business volume and the more favorable exchange rate of the US dollar against the New Taiwan dollar assume that the exchange rate of the US dollar against the New Taiwan dollar in the first quarter is assumed to be 1:33.18, compared to the exchange rate of 1:32.50 on January 14th. The contribution of the factor to the first quarter will be greater than the impact of the earthquake on wafer shipments.

On the other hand, TSMC's estimate of gross profit margin and operating profit ratio on January 14 was 47% to 49% and 36.5% to 38.5%, respectively. After the earthquake, the insurance claims were included in the calculation, TSMC estimated that the first quarter gross margin will be between 44% and 46%, and the operating profit ratio is expected to be between 33.5% and 35.5%.

TSMC concluded that, in summary, all the earthquake-related costs and expenses have been calculated into the current quarterly performance outlook, and will work closely with customers to fill all affected wafers as quickly as possible.