Taiwan chipmakers report sales boom

Strong sales growth at two of the world's largest chip foundries have boosted hopes that the worst may be over for the semiconductor sector, even though analysts cautioned that there need to be signs of a revival in consumer demand before they can be confident of a recovery.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC) said sales in March reached TWD 13.78bn (397.9m), 12.8% higher than the same month last year and 12.2% above the previous month. This brings sales in the first quarter to TWD 39.3bn ($1.1bn), 9.9% higher than a year earlier.

TSMC SVP Harvey Chang, said revenue had clearly touched bottom in the first quarter. He said the revenue growth for March was mainly due to increased wafer shipments and increased demand for advanced technologies, including its 0.13-micron process technology. Chang said the monthly sales for the second quarter are expected to increase sequentially.

Its smaller competitor United Microelectronics Corp enjoyed an even bigger upsurge, with sales for March up 29.8% on the figure a year earlier at TWD 7bn ($202.7m). Sales for the first quarter rose 47.2% to TWD 17.9bn ($514.2m).

In February, Gartner Dataquest said the worldwide semiconductor market would grow 8.9% this year to $167bn, and that it expected business spending on IT to strengthen in the second half of the year.

Source: Computerwire

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