Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the world's second-biggest contract chip maker by revenue, said on August 4 that profits in the three months to June had hit a five-year quarterly high.
The profit of 5.27 billion Taiwan dollars (US$66 million) in the second quarter marked a rise of 2.4 times over a year ago, fueled by strong demand from the communications industry.
The company's net profit in the previous quarter came in at 3.48 billion Taiwan dollars.
"Capacity utilization for the second quarter of 2010 was full," company CEO Sun Shih-wei said.
Revenues in the second quarter totaled 29.75 billion Taiwan dollars, up 31.5% year-on-year, or a rise of 11.3 percent from the previous quarter.
"Demand is expected to remain robust for advanced processes, driven by new applications and technology migration," said Sun. "Therefore, we are optimistic about third-quarter growth, anticipating rising revenues and profit, and maintain a healthy outlook for mid- to long-term demand."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
