Note the bold near the bottom, Stan.
Taiwan foundries see stronger Q1 sales
By Rex Crum, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:54 PM ET April 9, 2003
www2.marketwatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Taiwan Semiconductor and United Microelectronics, the world's two largest semiconductor foundries, say demand for new, higher-edge chips yielded above-consensus first-quarter sales, giving rise to hopes for a solid second quarter.
However, investor enthusiasm was muted Wednesday, as analysts said the markets for personal computers, telecom products and electronic devices will need to pick up steam for the foundries to extend their gains into the second half of the year.
Taiwan Semi's shares gave up 8 cents to close at $7.54, while United Micro pared back 2 cents to close at $3.34.
Taiwan Semi (TSM: news, chart, profile) reported first-quarter sales of $1.13 billion, topping Wall Street analysts' consensus of $1.09 billion. During the same period a year ago, Taiwan Semi's sales were $1.03 billion.
United Micro (UMC: news, chart, profile), Taiwan Semi's biggest competitor, said first-quarter sales reached $514 million, up 47 percent from the first-quarter last year and beating analysts' estimate of $501 million.
On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the companies' performance was mixed. Taiwan Semi's sales were down 4.4 percent from the $1.18 billion it took in during its fourth quarter, while Hsinchu, Taiwan-based United Micro's revenue rose sequentially by 2 percent from the $504 million generated in the final three months of 2002.
Harvey Chang, Taiwan Semi's chief financial officer, said that the company's sales "clearly touched bottom" in the first quarter of 2003, and that management expects to see month-to-month gains in the second quarter.
The foundries mostly benefited from growing orders for advanced chip products designed for specialized applications.
One of Taiwan Semi's biggest customers is graphics chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA: news, chart, profile), which makes chips for Microsoft's (MSFT: news, chart, profile) Xbox video-game console.
United Micro counts Xilinx (XLNX: news, chart, profile) among its customers, and it has plans to start up production a Singapore joint venture with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: news, chart, profile) in 2005.
Rex Crum is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco. |
