TSMC sales, profit hit all-time highs in second quarter

From InfoWorld: Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reported its best quarterly net profit and sales ever in the second quarter, and predicted the third quarter will be even better.

The company's strong performance highlights the speed at which the chip industry is recovering from the lows reached last year as the global recession took hold. It also follows stellar results from other chip giants. Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, also reported a record-breaking second quarter as revenue, gross margin, operating profit, and earnings per share all hit new highs.

TSMC is considered a technology industry bellwether for its size and the range of devices for which it makes chips. TSMC is the world's largest contract chip maker, manufacturing chips for global companies such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia.

TSMC's net profit reached NT$40.28 billion (US$1.25 billion), up 65 percent over the same period last year and beating its former record of NT$34.49 billion from the fourth quarter of 2007. TSMC's sales rose 41 percent to NT$105.0 billion, another record. Its old sales record was NT$93.86 billion, also from the fourth quarter of 2007.

Demand for TSMC's chip manufacturing services was brisk globally, but also picked up in some new areas, including Japan. That country has been slow to outsource chip manufacturing to companies such as TSMC, but appears to have recently started to move in that direction.

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