Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said sales grew 16.6 percent month-on-month to NT$14.2 billion (US$430 million) last month, marking the first monthly increase over the past seven months as the bleak economy hurt spending on electronics.
The boost brought TSMC’s first-quarter revenues to NT$39.5 billion, better than the chipmaker’s estimate of between NT$36 billion and NT$38 billion. Last month, TSMC raised its first-quarter revenues forecast by about 8.6 percent to between NT$36 billion and NT$38 billion, up from the NT$32 billion to NT$35 billion, citing rush orders and increasing demand from China.
TSMC’s first-quarter revenues, however, showed a decline of 54.8 percent from the NT$87.48 billion reported in the same period last year.
On Wednesday, rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) reported its sales last month rose 44.45 percent month-on-month to NT$4.54 billion, but declined 46.56 percent year-on-year.
In the first three months of the year, UMC posted NT$10.84 billion in revenues, down 54.85 percent from a year earlier.
TSMC has cancelled the unpaid leave policy from this month as growing rush orders helped improve factory usage. The firm also planned to recruit about 100 people for research and development and engineering work at advanced 12-inch plants.
Against this backdrop, Morgan Stanley on Tuesday raised its target price on TSMC to NT$44 from NT$39, and lifted its estimate on UMC to NT$8.6 from NT$7.7. Credit Suisse recommended target prices on TSMC and UMC at NT$58 and NT$12, respectively, in a March 26 report.
As demand may rebound across almost all sectors, Morgan Stanley predicted TSMC’s second-quarter revenues would increase by more than 50 percent from the previous quarter, higher than a 38 percent quarterly rise estimated by Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse forecast TSMC would post NT$1.03 billion in net income in the first quarter.
Sales of the nation's foundry companies fell 31.9 percent year-on-year, or declined 29.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, to NT$86.8 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, as global economic recession hurts demand, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA, 台灣半導體協會) said in a press release on Monday.
Overall, sales of the Taiwan's chip industry, which includes foundry companies, memory chip manufacturers, chip designers, chip packagers and testers, decreased 8.1 percent to NT$1.37 trillion from a year ago, according to the Hsinchu-based TSIA's tally.
The association forecast additional 26.9 percent year-on-year decline in sales this year as unresolved economic slowdown may continue to take toll on the nation's chip industry this year. In 2009, sales of Taiwan's chip industry may amount NT$984.5 billion as a whole, TSIA projected.
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