In the three months ending in March, TSMC's sales rose to 39.33 billion dollars (1.13 billion US) from 35.79 billion a year earlier, but were down from 41.15 billion in the fourth quarter, a company official said.

In March alone, its sales rose 12.8 percent year-on-year to 13.85 billion from 12.28 billion.

Month-on-month, March sales were up 12.2 percent.

TSMC said sales bottomed out in the first quarter on a sequential basis, and growth is expected in the second quarter.

"TSMC's revenue has clearly touched bottom in the first quarter," company senior vice president Harvey Chang said in a statement.

"Monthly sales for the second quarter are expected to increase sequentially," he said.

He said sales growth in March was mainly due to increased wafer shipments and demand for advanced technologies, including 0.13-micron process technology.

SPACE.WIRE