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TSMC reports revenue down 10 percent last month

"The fourth quarter will be the bottom for the chip foundry sector, and TSMC's revenue is likely to see a mid-single-digit quarter-on-quarter increase in its first-quarter revenue."

Darryl Cheng, senior analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker by revenue, reported yesterday that its revenue last month dropped 10 percent from the same month last year.

Revenue for last month totaled NT$24.71 billion (US$764.89 million) compared to NT$27.52 billion in November last year, TSMC said during a teleconference.

For the 11 months to Nov. 30, the company posted revenue of NT$291.51 billion -- 23 percent higher than NT$237.17 billion in the year-earlier period -- TSMC said, without commenting on the figures.

Revenue for last month was in line with the market's expectation, said Darryl Cheng, senior analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (元大京華證券).

"The fourth quarter will be the bottom for the chip foundry sector, and TSMC's revenue is likely to see a mid-single-digit quarter-on-quarter increase in its first-quarter revenue," Cheng said.

The market expects TSMC's revenue in the current quarter to fall 8 percent to 10 percent from last quarter's NT$81.43 billion, he said.

On Thursday, TSMC's smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said revenue last month fell 7.7 percent to NT$8.69 billion from the same month last year.

However, UMC revenue for the 11 months to Nov. 30 rose 17.1 percent to NT$95.73 billion from NT$81.76 billion in the same period last year, the company said.

UMC didn't comment on the figures in a posting on its Web site.

Fred Yu, an analyst at Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀), said UMC's November revenue figure was slightly higher than expected, as the company said in October it expected its revenue for the current quarter to fall between 7 percent and 9 percent from last quarter's NT$27.85 billion.

"The foundry sector is likely to hit bottom at the end of the first quarter next year," Yu said.

TSMC and UMC supply chips to several of the biggest companies in the global high-tech sector for use in a variety of products including mobile phones, digital cameras and computers.
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