Foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) Thursday (Jan. 15) reported an increase in revenue in profit for the fourth quarter of 2014 and said demand for its most advanced process technologies continued to increase, accounting for more than half of sales.
TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) reported fourth quarter 2014 earnings of $222.52 billion new Taiwan dollars (about $7 billion), up 6 percent compared with the third quarter and up 52 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.
TSMC posted a profit of NT$79.99 billion (about $2.5 billion) in the fourth quarter, up 5 percent sequentially and up 76 percent year-over-year.
Shipments of 20-nanometer (nm) wafers accounted for 21 percent of total sales in the fourth quarter while 28nm wafers accounted for 30 percent of sales, TSMC said.
Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 50 percent, operating margin was 40 percent and net profit margin was 36 percent, TSMC said.
Lora Ho, TSMC's chief financial officer, said in a statement that the 20nm production was ramped-up at record speed despite slightly weaker demand due to seasonality. She added that the company is hopeful that without the impact from seasonality and a more favorable exchange rate, the first quarter of this year will yield even better results.
TSMC’s outlook for the first quarter of 2015 is for revenues to come in at between NT$221 billion and NT$224 billion (about $7 billion to $7.1 billion) with gross profit margin between 49 percent and51 percent. TSMC said it expects to spend between $11.5 billon and $12 billion in capital expenditures in 2015.
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