TSMC's revenue falls by nearly 9% in November
By Mark LaPedus
Silicon Strategies
12/09/2003, 1:00 AM ET
HSINCHU, Taiwan--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) today (December 9, 2003) said that its net sales totaled NT$18,510 million (US$543.3 million) for the month of November, a decrease of 8.8 percent from October 2003 but up 26.9 percent in the like period a year ago.
Revenues for January through November totaled NT$182,939 million (US$5.4 billion), an increase of 22.3 percent over the same period in 2002, according to the silicon foundry giant, based in Hsinchu.
The monthly decline was expected. As previously reported on Silicon Strategies, TSMC's sales are expected to dip in November and December, while rival United Microelectronics Corp. is projected to grow in the same period, according to a recent report from Pacific Crest Securities Inc.
TSMC is projected to cool off, as the company's fabs are mainly front-end loaded, with a greater exposure to the lower-margin PC industry, said Michael McConnell, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, in the report.
TSMC's fourth-quarter sales are still in line with the analyst's estimates of 5 percent growth quarter-over-quarter. The company reported sales of $1.601 billion in Q3.
But the company's average selling prices (ASPs) for wafers are worse-than-expected, due to its exposure to PCs. Its ASPs are expected to fall 4-to-5 percent in Q4, verses its guidance of flat-to-down 5 percent, according to the analyst (see December 3 story). |
