Leading semiconductor foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) reported sales of about NT$51.79 billion (about US$1.75 billion) for October, an increase of 3.6 percent over October 2012.
Sequentially, TSMC's sales dipped by 6.5 percent, which could signify the start of an inventory correction previously tipped by TSMC chairman and CEO Morris Chang earlier in the year. In the six previous years, October sales at TSMC were ahead of September sales.
As a result, TSMC's sales for the first 10 months of the year were NT$503.01 billion (about US$17.03 billion), up 18.3 percent over the same period in 2012. TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has about 50 percent market share in the pure-play foundry business based on a strong position in leading-edge process technology at 28 nm and 20 nm. As such, it has tended to outperform other pure-play foundries in recent years.
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), another pure-play foundry based in Hsinchu, notched October sales of NT$10.47 billion (about US$350 million), up 4.1 percent over its sales in October 2012 and marginally down on its sales in September 2013. UMC's year-to-date sales were NT$103.56 billion (about US$3.51 billion), up 6.9 percent on the same period in 2012.
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