November 10, 2006 – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said sales in October were roughly flat with the previous month at about $814.9 million, representing a 2% increase from October 2005, and maintaining what has shown to be lackluster performance through much of 2006.

For the 10 months through October, TSMC’s total sales of ~$8.09 billion are a 27.3% improvement from the same period in 2005, but nearly all of those gains were achieved in the first three months of the year, when the foundry saw Y-Y growth of 25.6%, 39.6%, and 53.9%, respectively. Since then, TSMC’s month-on-month sales totals have fluctuated +/-2%, and Y-Y growth has steadily declined, from mid-30% in the summer to just 6.5% in September and 2.4% in October.

Earlier this week, rival foundry UMC also said its October sales were sluggish (~$275.6 million), nearly 2% below September’s levels and roughly flat with sales in October 2005. However, for the 10 months so far this year, UMC’s revenue is up about 20% to $2.65 billion compared with the same period a year ago.