Taiwan's TSMC sees Q3 chip shipments up at top end of forecast

TAIPEI (AFP) Sep 05, 2003
Taiwan Semicondcutor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker, expects its third quarter wafer shipments to come in at the top end of its forecasts, a company spokesman said Friday.

"We expect shipments in the third quarter will rise at the higher end of our previous estimate of five to nine percent (compared to the three months to June," the spokesman said, citing deputy director of the company's investor relations division Elizabeth Sun.

Sun made the comments in an investor seminar held in New York earlier this week.

The spokesman said TSMC maintained its earlier guidance of a more than 90 percent capacity utilisation rate in the third quarter.

In the second quarter, the company's capacity utilisation rate stood at 88 percent, compared with 69 percent in the first.

The spokesman said demand from consumer electronic products manufacturers, such as digital camera and cell phone makers, will be the driving force for the company's growth.

TSMC is expected have a fourth quarter "no worse than" the third, the spokesman added.

In the second quarter, TSMC posted 11.73 billion Taiwan dollarsmillion US dollars) in net profit, up from 4.36 billion dollars in the first quarter.

SPACE.WIRE