The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) issued figures showing that August wasn’t quite as buoyant as it might have desired.
TSMC has shown signs of recovery in a flagging market, prompting hopes that the semiconductor market was on the rise.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that TSMC, a “pure play foundry” has been reacting to a market that isn’t necessarily recovering but needs to top up inventories. On the bright side, IT companies are launching products and require the services of firms like TSMC to manufacture chips for their new introductions.
August may be slow for sales in stores, but traditionally is a strong period for firms like TSMC as their customers roll out products in the “back to school” and later the holiday period.
Here are TSMC’s figures for August 2009. Numbers are in millions of Taiwanese dollar. One US dollar=NT$32.63.
| Net Sales |
2009 | 2008 | Increase (Decrease) |
| August | 28,888 | 30,995 | (6.8) |
| Jan-August | 168,722 | 232,689 | (27.5) |
