Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp said Wednesday net profit in the three months to March plunged 70.2 percent year-on-year due to falling revenues and a strong local currency.
Net profit in the first quarter totalled only Tw$1.3 billion ($45.3 million), compared with Tw$4.5 billion a year ago, the world's second biggest contract microchip maker said in a statement.
But the company saw a cause for optimism in the fact that first-quarter profits represented a rise of 36.2 percent from the previous three-month period.
"For the second quarter, we expect wafer shipments to increase 15 percent (from the first quarter) as communication and consumer (integrated circuit) demand grows," Chief Executive Officer Sun Shih-wei said.
"This projected growth reconfirms that the economic cycle trough seen in the first quarter signalled that the semiconductor industry's multi-quarter inventory correction has subsided."
The company's revenues in the first three months stood at Tw$28.1 billion, down 15.5 percent from the previous year.
Source: AFP Asian Edition
