(Corrects market forecast in first bullet point)
* Q3 profit T$137.3 bln vs T$124.9 bln market forecast
* Q3 revenue up 29% on year in U.S. dollar terms
TAIPEI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) reported a 36% jump in quarterly net profit, boosted by robust demand for products requiring high-end chips and as Apple Inc readies a new iPhone.
July-September net profit for the world’s largest contract chipmaker came in at T$137.3 billion ($4.8 billion), well ahead of the T$124.9 billion average of 19 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
TSMC’s advanced chips are used in high-end smartphones such as Apple’s newly unveiled 5G iPhone 12 as well as in telecommunications technology and artificial intelligence.
The chip sector has also been one of the rare industries benefiting from the coronavirus pandemic with more people investing in premium devices as they spend longer hours at home and as corporations seek to add more bandwidth for remote workers.
That has helped TSMC offset a loss of orders from Huawei after the U.S. imposed extensive restrictions on sales to the Chinese telecommunications giant.
A U.S. proposal to also put Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) on the same trade blacklist has also caused some of the Chinese chipmaker’s clients to preemptively switch over to its Taiwanese rival, analysts have said.
TSMC’s revenue for the quarter climbed 29.2% to $12.1 billion, above the company’s prior estimated range of $11.2 billion to $11.5 billion.
Shares of TSMC have jumped about 36% so far this year, giving it a market value of $414 billion. ($1 = 28.7260 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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