TAIPEI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) yesterday said revenue for last month grew 22.7 percent to NT$73.09 billion (US$2.25 billion) from February, the highest in the past five months.
For the first quarter, cumulative revenue shrank 8.3 percent to NT$203.5 billion from NT$222.03 billion in the same period of last year.
However, the quarterly figure exceeded TSMC’s revenue guidance of between NT$201 billion and NT$203 billion.
TSMC in February projected gross margin of between 44 percent and 46 percent for the first quarter.
Separately, TSMC customer MediaTek Inc posted 61.13 percent jump in revenue for last month to NT$21.34 billion, compared with NT$13.24 billion in February.
In the January-March period, MediaTek made NT$55.91 billion in revenue, down 9.4 percent year-on-year from NT$61.71 billion.
MediaTek blamed the lower quarterly revenue on fewer working days in February and escalating price competition with rivals including Qualcomm Inc and China’s Spreadtrum Communications Inc.
Last quarter’s revenue matched MediaTek’s forecast of between NT$52.5 billion and NT$57.4 billion, but slightly better than NT$55.5 billion estimated by Credit Suisse Group AG.
MediaTek supplies handset chips to numerous smartphone brands including Xiaomi Corp.
Separately, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp, which makes controller chips for LCD panels, yesterday reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue of NT$6.22 billion, compared with NT$6.15 billion estimated by the firm in January.
Vanguard spokesman Tseng Dong-liang last week said that continuing restocking demand from customers would provide some support to its revenue in the second quarter.
Vanguard is a 28 percent-owned subsidiary of TSMC, which accounts for between 20 and 30 percent of its revenue.
