Singapore  - Singapore chip-maker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd said Friday it stayed in the red in the second quarter, but expected improvement in its business for the rest of the year.

For the three months to June 30, Chartered posted a net loss of 39.4 million US dollars, reversing a profit of 43.4 million US dollars it made in the same period last year, the company said in a statement.

However, the numbers showed "a substantial improvement" from the previous quarter, when Chartered Semiconductor reported a net loss of 98.8 million US dollars, according to the statement.

The net loss for the second quarter included a tax benefit of 8.8 million US dollars.

Revenue in the second quarter reached 349 million US dollars, down 23.7 per cent from the same period in 2008.

For the third quarter, the company said it was "seeing healthy sequential growth" in its business, with revenue growing to between 382 and 394 million US dollars and the net loss cut to 17 to 27 million US dollars.(dpa)