Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest supplier of made-to-order computer chips, said its first-quarter profit quadrupled as its plants ran at full capacity to meet orders.
Net income rose to a higher-than-expected NT$18.8 billion (US$568.6 million), or NT$0.93 a share, from NT$4.4 billion, the company said in a news release to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The chipmaker, which was forced to idle 32 percent of its plants a year ago, now has more orders than it can meet because of surging demand for camera-equipped phones and a rebounding computer market.
"TSMC should be able to raise its average selling prices this year because of an improved product mix," said Paul Tsai, a fund manager at International Investment Trust (國際投信). "I expect full-year earnings per share of at least NT$4," he said.
Sales, as announced earlier, rose by 46 percent to NT$57.5 billion. Operating profit was NT$17.5 billion, the company said.
TSMC was among the world's first companies to build plants that can make chips on silicon wafers that measure 12 inches in diameter. The factories, which cost as much as US$3.6 billion to build, can help cut production costs by as much as to a third by more than doubling the number of chips made from eight-inch wafers.
"TSMC's 12-inch plants are now more profitable than its eight-inch facilities," said Dickson Ho, an analyst with Morgan Stanley & Co in Taipei. "The company is encouraging more of its customers to move to 12-inch wafers for production."
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