TSMC's monthly revenues at record high of NT$18.32bn

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that its monthly revenues hit a record high in August as its shipments surged.

TSMC said revenue rose 35 percent last month to NT$18.32 billion (US$537 million). The figure beat its previous monthly revenue record of NT$18.19 billion (US$533 million), set in December 2000 at the height of the Internet boom.

The strong revenues are good news for the high-tech industry because TSMC is considered a bellwether because of the wide variety of chips that the company makes.

Revenue for the first eight months of this year totaled NT$125.21 billion (US$3.67 billion), up 17 percent from a year ago, the company said.

Vice President Lora Ho (何麗梅) said in a statement that growth in TSMC's third-quarter wafer shipments is expected to be slightly higher than the company's forecast of 5 percent to 9 percent.

Rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday that its sales in August amounted to NT$7.01 billion (US$205.45 million). UMC said its sales rose to NT$53.62 billion from NT$43.88 billion last year.