TSMC December sales slump; 2006 sales shine

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 1/10/2007

Top foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) today announced lackluster December financial results with sales of $684 million (22.37 billion new Taiwanese dollars) down 9.4 percent from November's sales and down 18.4 percent from December 2005's numbers.

However, proving that the full-year was not a loss, sales for 2006 increased 18.6 percent over 2005 to a record high of $9.6 billion (313.9 billion new Taiwanese dollars), TSMC reported.

TSMC's rival, second-ranked foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Tuesday posted similarly drab December numbers and strong full-year results. UMC's December sales of $256.4 million were a 7.17 percent decline from the company's December 2005 revenues and a 3.66 percent drop from its November numbers, while its full-year sales of $3.2 billion were up 14.68 percent over 2005.