28nm technology leads TSMC to second-highest quarterly profit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has posted their highest quarterly profit in six quarters and the second-highest all time. The company posted sales of $4.2 billion and a net income of $1.4 billion, up 15.9 percent and 16.3 percent from the same time last year, respectively.

TSMC credits the strong growth to demand of their 28nm manufacturing process technology used in mobile computing applications. They expect to double the shipment of 28nm in the third quarter which will account for more than 80 percent of their revenue growth, according to senior vice president and chief financial officer Lora Ho.

The company expects revenue in the next quarter to be somewhere between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion but the outlook for the rest of the year could be rocky. The chip maker believes that increasing inventory levels among their clients is worrisome.

TSMC chairman Morris Chang told investors that inventory at hardware manufacturers was about six days below seasonal average at the end of the first quarter. By the conclusion of the third quarter, he expects levels to be about 12 days above seasonal stock. This could possibly lead to correction methods in the fourth quarter that would see TSMC’s revenue drop before picking back up in Q2 2013.

If you aren’t familiar with TSMC, they are the world’s largest contract chip maker. The company was founded in 1987 and supplies products for big names like Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Nvidia, Marvell, Via and Qualcomm, just to name a few.