Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a slight 1.6 percent decline in revenue last month from May’s record-breaking figure, bringing the world’s top contract chipmaker’s second-quarter revenue to an all-time high.
Revenue last month edged down to NT$43.43 billion (US$1.45 billion) from May’s NT$44.14 billion, but it was up 18.43 percent from NT$36.67 billion a year ago.
In the quarter ending June 30, TSMC’s revenue grew 21.38 percent to NT$128.07 billion, from NT$105.51 billion in the previous quarter, slightly exceeding the chipmaker’s forecast range of NT$126 billion and NT$128 billion.
The quarterly growth also outpaced the 20 percent increase predicted by Eric Chen (陳慧明), a senior semiconductor analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets based in Hong Kong.
Chen expects the chipmaker to reach its other financial targets set in April. TSMC has said it expects gross margin to rise to a high of 49 percent from the first quarter, while operating profit margin would be 34.5 percent and 36.5 percent.
Chen warned that “quarter-on-quarter revenue growth may have peaked in the second quarter.”
He expected TSMC’s revenue to grow at a 4 percent quarterly pace this quarter.
Chen attributed the softness to slowing demand for TSMC’s 65-nanometer (nm) and 40nm chips because of sagging end product demand and the chipmaker’s allocation of part of these capacities to advanced 28nm chips to cope with surprisingly strong demand.
Separately, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), which assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc, yesterday posted its third straight month of revenue decline. Hon Hai’s unconsolidated revenue dropped 1.77 percent to NT$236.83 billion last month, from NT$241.09 billion in May, according to a company statement released yesterday. That was an increase of 3.69 percent from NT$228.4 billion in June of last year.
In the seasonally slack second quarter, Hon Hai’s revenue fell 7.63 percent to NT$729.65 billion, compared with the first quarter’s NT$789.94 billion.
Revenue in the first half of the year expanded 27.92 percent to NT$1.52 trillion, which bodes well for the company’s goal of annual growth of 15 percent set by company chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘).
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