Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which owns and operates the WaferTech semiconductor foundry in Camas, said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled after a rebound in global demand for computers.
According an Associated Press report, TSMC net income for October-December 2009 surged 162 percent from a year earlier to $1 billion on revenue of $2.9 billion. Fourth-quarter sales jumped 43 percent from a year earlier, the company said. It forecast a double-digit expansion in sales this year as the global economy recovers.
About 1,000 workers are employed at WaferTech, which began operations in Clark County in the mid-1990s.
TSMC said weak demand early in 2009 dragged down full-year sales 11.2 percent from 2008. Sales improved with “computer-related applications growing strongly” amid the emerging recovery, despite a seasonal decline in demand for consumer tech products.
TSMC’s chips are used in devices ranging from mobile phones to computers.
Demand plunged following the 2008 onset of the global economic crisis but began to recover during the second quarter of 2009.
TSMC Chairman Morris Chang said he was upbeat about 2010 at an investor conference, forecasting a 14 percent increase in global computer sales and a 12 percent increase in handset sales during the year.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, forecast 18 percent growth in the global semiconductor market in 2010, Chang said. The market contracted about 9 percent in 2009.
Foundry, or contract manufacturing done at WaferTech, is expected to outperform the overall chip market with 29 percent growth in 2010, Chang said. The overall foundry industry contracted 17 percent in 2009.
The company is expected to run at full capacity throughout 2010 while preparing to begin mass production using the cutting-edge 28-nanometer process technology in the first half of 2011, he said. The advanced process enables more features to be integrated into smaller chips.
TSMC wafer productions now involve mainly 0.13-micron, 40- and 65-nanometer technologies. A nanometer is approximately the width of a human hair.
