Taiwan's UMC Raises Wafer Foundry Prices
March 4, 1999 (TAIPEI) -- Wafer foundry manufacturer United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan raised its product prices 5-10 percent, following similar moves by competitors.
Singapore-based Chartered Electronics Industrial Pte., Ltd. were hiked by a minimum of 20 percent in early February.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), another major wafer foundry maker here, has yet to take a similar action.
Prices of 16M and 64M dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) remain high. Even DRAM packing and testing companies, which have suffered price slumps for the past two years, are turning tougher over pricing.
Currently, both TSMC and UMC are operating at full capacity. Average delivery takes three to four weeks, up significantly from the previous record of one to two weeks.
These trends all show that wafer foundry makers are indeed enjoying a recovery.
Some integrated circuit design companies are resisting the price-hike trend, threatening to move their orders to wafer foundry makers such as TSMC that are not changing prices. However, as TSMC is already operating at full capacity, it will soon be unable to accept any new orders, observers said.
Chartered pointed out that in February, the prices of products sold to its U.S. clients were 20 percent higher on average than those sold to Taiwan buyers. Therefore, the company added, the recent price hikes were only made to equate the two prices.
Otherwise, Chartered would still be suffering losses, even if it operated at full capacity, the company claimed.
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