Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will lose out to competitors in the 14/16nm process segment in terms of market share in 2015 but will regain its leading market position in 2016-2017, according to TSMC chairman Morris Chang.

16nm products will account for a single-digit ratio to TSMC's overall revenues in the third quarter of 2015, Chang estimated.

Chang did not say which rivals will outperform TSMC in 2015, but industry sources pointed out that Samsung Electronics will take the lead in the 14/16nm segment as the firm has reportedly landed 14nm chip orders from Qualcomm.

However, Chang stressed that 16/20nm processes will drive revenue growth at TSMC in the next three years, with 20nm products to account for 10% total revenues in the third quarter of 2014 and to further expand to 20% in the fourth quarter. In 2015, the 20nm node will contribute over 20% of revenues, Chang added.

TSMC's 16nm process will be competitive for baseband chips, consumer ICs, GPUs, networking solutions, FPGA and server chips, Chang stressed.

Meanwhile, TSMC expects its revenues to grow 12.6-14.2% sequentially to NT$206-209 billion (US$6.86-6.96 billion) in the third quarter of 2014, up from the NT$183.02 billion a quarter earlier.

For the third quarter, gross margin will reach 48.5-50.5%, while operating margin will top 38.5%-40.5%, TSMC noted.