TAIPEI: TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker, posted its lowest sales in 22 months in December as the semiconductor industry struggles with shrinking demand and a slowing economy, but it managed to post a humble growth for the full year, outshining smaller cross-town rival UMC.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) said unconsolidated sales totalled T$30.57 billion ($1.01 billion) last month, falling 9.4 percent from T$33.75 billion a year earlier and down 13.2 percent from T$35.22 billion in the previous month.
Consolidated sales in the month were T$31.24 billion, down 10.4 percent from a year earlier, while they rose 1.8 percent in the full year of 2011 to $427.08 billion.
That compared with the world's No.2 contract chip maker United Microelectronics Corp's (UMC) 12.1 percent decline in full-year sales, totalling 105.88 billion.
UMC said on Monday its sales recorded the eighth consecutive decline in December, dropping 20.4 percent from a year earlier, although it posted a 0.5 percent gain from the previous month.
J.P. Morgan upgraded the foundry sector last week to "bullish" and said the sector is likely to mark a bottom this quarter, citing more outsourcing from the global integrated device manufacturers and higher demand from mobile computing.
"While we now expect the SCM (semiconductor contract manufacture) sales to fall a high single percent quarter-on-quarter in 1Q...we see 2Q sales likely to jump higher than the consensus on a possible over-destocking," it said in a report.
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