The world’s top contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday reported record-high monthly sales again for last month, helped by recovering demand for chips used in computers and other electronic devices.
Last month, consolidated revenues totaled NT$36.33 billion (US$1.13 billion), up 4.4 percent month-on-month and 37 percent year-on-year, TSMC said in a press release. That brought the chipmaker’s second-quarter revenues to NT$104.95 billion, exceeding the firm’s April forecast range of between NT$100 billion and NT$102 billion.
The quarterly results also beat expectations of most analysts, including Credit Suisse’s Randy Abrams and JP Morgan’s Rick Hsu (徐稦成), who expected TSMC to generate NT$103.14 billion and NT$103.9 billion respectively.
It also compared favorably with rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), which on Thursday posted NT$29.75 billion in unconsolidated revenues for the quarter ending June 30, up 11.34 percent quarter-on-quarter and 32 percent year-on-year.
Hsu said in a report released on Monday that he raised his forecast for TSMC’s second-quarter revenues because of favorable exchange rates as the local currency appreciated 1.6 percent, which was slower than TSMC’s estimates.
On a quarterly basis, TSMC’s second-quarter revenues represented about a 14 percent increase from the first quarter’s NT$92.19 billion.
TSMC said in April it was unable to satisfy customer demand and had decided to raise capital spending to a record high of US$4.8 billion this year.
On June 24, chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said the spending “is still accelerating.”
Credit Suisse analyst Randy Abrams expected TSMC to further hike capital spending to US$5.5 billion this year.
Ahead of yesterday’s sales results, JP Morgan’s Hsu said: “We believe TSMC’s near-term outlook remains intact and we expect its third-quarter top-line to grow by 7 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$111 billion.”
Separately, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) — which makes driver ICs used in flat panels and is 37.44 percent owned by TSMC — yesterday said last month’s sales rose nearly 3 percent to NT$1.47 billion from May’s NT$1.43 billion.
The monthly increase was due to “better product mix,” Vanguard spokesman Robert Hsieh (謝徽榮) said yesterday.
In the second quarter, Vanguard made NT$4.23 billion in revenues, up 18.38 percent from NT$3.58 billion in the first three months of the year. The chipmaker has said demand for driver ICs would be the main growth driver for the second quarter.
The chipmaker said in April that shipments would rise by 10 percent quarter-on-quarter because of mounting demand for foundry business and that the average selling price would rise slightly quarter-on-quarter.
Shares of TSMC and Vanguard were unchanged at NT$60.4 and NT$13.5 yesterday in Taipei trading, while UMC rose 1.06 percent to NT$14.35.
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