Hay, finally some good news.
Stan
Monday January 14, 3:57 PM
Taiwan's TSMC upbeat on 2002 after strong fourth quarter
By Jennifer Tan
sg.biz.yahoo.com
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) said on Monday it expected a strong 2002 after buoyant fourth-quarter sales, thanks to the recovery in personal computer and consumer electronics sectors.
"The first quarter is holding up, it's good," Morris Chang, chief executive of the world's largest contract manufacturer of microchips, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a technology symposium in Singapore.
"And the first quarter will show an increase from the fourth quarter. In fact, I think we will see a quarterly increase from now on -- the second quarter over the first and so on."
TSMC said last week its December sales totalled T$11.73 billion ($335.6 million), its sixth straight month-on-month improvement.
This brings fourth quarter revenues to T$32.82 billion, against T$26.94 billion in the July-September quarter, and T$53.82 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company's 2001 sales revenue stands at T$125.89 billion, up slightly from an official forecast of T$125.36 billion given in November.
COMMUNICATIONS SECTOR LAGS
Analysts said TSMC was seeing a recovery in its foundry business, after the worst-ever slump in the history of the chip industry in 2001, earlier than rivals like Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp <2303> and Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore: CSMF.SI - news) Manufacturing .
"It's no wonder as TSMC is an industry leader and has the largest market share in the foundry market," said Chris Hsieh, analyst at ING Barings in Taipei. |
