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TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, said over the
weekend a number of its computer systems and fab tools had been
infected by a virus and that it expected a full recovery on
Monday. It expected the incident to cause shipment delays and
forecast a hit to its third-quarter financial results.
Mark Li, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in a report on
Sunday technology giant Apple was one of the impacted customers
but a swift recovery in the fourth quarter should keep the
impact minimal.
"Long-term, TSMC's trustworthy image is somewhat tainted but it
is hard to quantify the effect now," Li said.
KGI Securities said in a report on Monday that while some of
TSMC's 12-inch wafer shipments will be delayed, the impact to
the upcoming iPhone launch is limited because "the upstream
supply chain usually prepares for these incidents and
manufactures surplus chipsets during the initial ramp-up stage".
Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment. TSMC said it did not have any additional information
for now.
TSMC has said it maintained its previous forecast of high
single-digit revenue growth for 2018 as shipments delayed in the
third quarter would recover in the fourth quarter.
As of 0124 GMT, TSMC shares were down 1 percent at T$245.0,
compared with a 0.02 percent fall for the benchmark index.
Major tech companies in Taiwan, a crucial part of the global
electronics supply chain, usually enter a busier period in the
second half of the year ahead of tech gadget launches.
TSMC trimmed its annual revenue and capital spending estimates
last month amid bleak demand from smartphone and cryptocurrency
mining industries.
(Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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