LONDON – Leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has announced that net sales fell in February compared with the previous month but were ahead of sales in February 2011, taking year-to-date sales into annual growth.
February is a short month and monthly sales are often lower than those of the preceding month, but the movement of the Chinese lunar New Year and associated holidays from February in 2011 to January in 2012 was expected to provide a relative boost to February sales after inhibiting January sales.
On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$33.58 billion (about $1.12 billion), a decrease of 1.4 percent over January 2012 and an increase of 5.8 percent over February 2011. Revenues for January through February 2012 totaled NT$67.64 billion (about $2.30 billion), an increase of 2.2 percent compared to the same period in 2011.
On a consolidated basis, net sales for February 2012 were approximately NT$33.86 billion (about $1.15 billion), a decrease of 2.1 percent over January 2012 and an increase of 3.6 percent over February 2011. Consolidated revenues for January through February 2012 totaled NT$68.42 billion (about $2.32 billion), an increase of 0.5 percent compared to the same period in 2011.
Sales at rival foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) also dipped. UMC announced February sales revenue of NT$7.52 billion (about $255 million), down 6.6 percent from January but also down 16.5 percent from February 2011. UMC's 2012 year-to-date is trailing the same period in 2011 by 16.0 percent.
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