TSMC lauds ‘fine’ Q2 figures

TSMC, the world's largest chip foundry, today reported a significant upswing in sales during its second fiscal quarter. That, in turn, generated a big leap in profitability.

Sales for the quarter hit NT$49.92 billion ($1.45 billion), up 26.9 per cent on the previous quarter and 13 per cent on the same period last year. Income for quarter totalled NT$11.73 billion ($340.59 million) - a whopping 169.2 per cent up on Q1 and 26 per cent up on Q2 2002's figure.

TSMC said that 20cm wafer shipments during the quarter reached 887,000, up 28 per cent on Q1's shipments, though non-wafer manufacturing sales declined slightly sequentially. At the same time, TSMC's average selling price rose four per cent, primarily because customers are increasingly choosing higher-end processes. Revenues from 180nm processes and below accounted for 62 per cent of total wafer sales during the quarter, while 130nm process products yielded 17 per cent of total wafer sales.

The company noted that the quarter's average utilisation rate increased to 88 per cent from Q1's figure of 69 per cent. That led to an increase in gross margins, which were up from 26.4 per cent in Q1 to 36.8 per cent.

For the first six months of the fiscal year, TSMC's net sales were NT$89.25 billion ($2.59 billion), while net income reached NT$16.09 billion ($467.13 million).

Looking ahead, TSMC said it expects this "fine performance" to continue through Q3. ®