Taipei - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, on Monday revised down its fourth-quarter production target owing to the global recession.

"The company now expects fourth-quarter revenue to be between 63 billion and 65 billion Taiwan dollars (1.9 billion-1.96 billion US dollars), instead of the previous expectation of 69 billion-71 billion Taiwan dollars," TSMC said in a statement.

TSMC, situated in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in the west of Taiwan, issued its previous fourth-quarter output forecast on October 30.

The downward revision is due to a reduction in wafer shipments resulting from continuing weakness in global economic conditions, the statement said.

TSMC is expected to release its fourth-quarter results on January 22.