Chipmakers report rise in sales

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said its March sales rose 2.4 percent month-to-month to NT$17.61 billion (US$558 million) from NT$17.20 billion in February.

But the March figure represented a decline of 11.8 percent year-on-year, said the world's largest made-to-order chipmaker.

The increase in sales were due to higher wafer shipments amid expanding demand, said Lora Ho, TSMC vice president and chief financial officer, in a statement.

Parent sales in the first quarter to March fell 3.2 percent from a year earlier to NT$55.65 billion, it said.

At an investor conference in January, TSMC said that it expected its wafer shipments in the first quarter to sustain a single-digit percentage point fall sequentially against a largely flat average selling price.

The company had also projected an overall utilization rate of about 78 percent and a gross profit margin in the range of 38-40 percent for the period.

TSMC rival United Microelectronics Corp said sales rose 14 percent to NT$7.01 billion in March from NT$6.14 billion a monthly earlier but were down 22.19 percent from a year ago.

Parent sales in the first quarter to March fell 19.90 percent to NT$20.29 billion dollars from NT$25.33 billion dollars in the previous quarter, said the world's second-largest maker of made-to-order semiconductor chips.

UMC said it expected wafer shipments in the first quarter to March to fall 17 percent from the previous quarter.