Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday reported that first-quarter revenue exceeded its earlier guidance, thanks to record sales last month.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted NT$310.6 billion (US$10.32 billion) in revenue for the January-to-March period, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier, but down 2.09 percent from the previous quarter.
That beat the NT$304.98 billion to NT$307.97 billion guidance that TSMC told investors in January.
The first-quarter results reflected solid global demand for 5G applications and high-performance computing devices, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and a typically slow season for the company, analysts said.
Last month, revenue grew 21.5 percent month-on-month and 42.4 percent year-on-year to NT$113.52 billion, company data showed.
TSMC is scheduled to hold a quarterly earnings conference on Thursday to detail its first-quarter results and give sales guidance for the second quarter.
Market researchers have warned that sales in the semiconductor industry would likely fall this year due to the pandemic, with Gartner Inc predicting an annual 0.9 percent decline and IC Insights Inc forecasting a 4 percent decrease.
Separately, smaller contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) on Friday posted a 7.08 percent month-on-month increase in revenue last month to NT$14.57 billion, an increase of 41.11 percent from a year earlier.
UMC’s first-quarter revenue rose about 1 percent from the prior quarter and was up 29.72 percent from a year earlier to NT$42.27 billion, setting a quarterly record for the company and better than Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co's (日盛投顧) estimate of NT$41.85 billion.
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) reported revenue for last month of NT$22.82 billion, an increase of 25.27 percent month-on-month and 2.27 percent year-on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
First-quarter sales rose 15.44 percent from a year earlier to NT$60.85 billion, but declined about 6 percent from the previous month, it added.
The first-quarter result was better than the company's guidance of between NT$55 billion and NT$60.2 billion.
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), which supplies driver ICs for flat panels and power management chips, on Thursday posted revenue for last month of NT$2.88 billion, an increase of 29.59 percent from a year earlier.
Vanguard chief financial officer Amanda Huang (黃惠蘭) said that last month’s revenue grew 10.99 percent from the previous month due to an increase of wafer shipments.
Cumulative revenue in the first quarter rose 6.9 percent quarterly and 13.57 percent annually to NT$7.84 billion, which beat Jih Sun's estimate of NT$7.77 billion.
Additional reporting by staff writer
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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