TSMC Q2 net profit hits new high

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) on Thursday said its net profit in the second quarter of this year smashed previous records and hit a new quarterly high, soaring more than 60 percent from a year earlier on the back of strong global demand for emerging technologies, such as high performance computing (HPC) devices.

In a statement, TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, said that its second-quarter net profits totaled NT$398.27 billion (US$13.54 billion), up 60.7 percent from a year earlier and up 10.2 percent from a quarter earlier.

The second quarter earnings per share stood at NT$15.36, compared with NT$9.56 a year earlier and NT$13.94 a quarter earlier, TSMC said.

In addition to HPC devices, TSMC also benefited from growth in smartphone, Internet of Things and consumer electronics divisions in the second quarter.

During the April to June period, TSMC generated US$30.07 billion in consolidated sales, beating its forecast of US$28.4 billion to US$29.2 billion. In Taiwan dollar terms, its consolidated sales stood at NT$933.79 billion, up 38.6 percent from a year earlier and also up 11.3 percent from a quarter earlier.

Market analysts said TSMC was keen to raise its production capacity utilization and improve cost controls, which helped to ease the impact resulting from a stronger Taiwan dollar and generally high costs shouldered by wafer fabs overseas.

TSMC's second quarter gross margin -- the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold -- stood at 58.6 percent, within a forecast of 57-59 percent, but down 0.2 percentage points from the first quarter.

According to TSMC, the 3 nanometer process accounted for 24 percent of its total sales in the second quarter, the 5nm process made up 36 percent and the 7nm process represented 14 percent. In other words, high-end processes continued to dominate the chipmaker's product portfolio, accounting for 74 percent of the total revenue.

In the first half of this year, TSMC raked in NT$759.84 billion in net profit, up 60.5 percent from a year earlier, with EPS at NT$29.3.

During the same period, its consolidated sales totaled NT$1.77 trillion, up 40 percent from a year earlier, with its gross margin at 58.7 percent, up 5.6 percentage points from a year earlier.