UMC (2303)closed @44.40 -1.50 vol 31,053,330
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June 27 net purchase 5,819,000 shares
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TAIWAN WEIGHTED closed @ 4768.55 -56.73 (-1.18%)
Day's Range :4741.54 - 4826.68
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UMC (2303 TT) is considering shutting down two of its 8" fabs temporarily to reduce cost, according to the “Economic Daily.” Chartered, an IC foundry located in Singapore, also plans to shut down one of its 8" fabs next week. Both companies seem to be suffering from overexposure in the telecom sector: 48% of UMC's sales in 1Q01 came from the telecom sector, while TSMC (2330 TT) only reported 31% of its sales coming from that area over the same period. So far, seasonal demand for the third quarter, the traditional hot season, looks weak. Although TSMC expects a positive sequential increase in 3Q01 sales, it looks as though it will be a low single digit increase. We don’t believe the global semiconductor industry can have a significant rebound before 2002.
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Taiwan's UMC Denies Mulling Closure Of Two Chip Plants
TAIPEI (Dow Jones)--United Microelectronics Corp. (Q.UME) Thursday denied a local media report claiming the chip foundry will temporarily close two 8-inch wafer fabs.
An offical at UMC also denied that the company plans to offer employees extended vacation because of the current slowdown in the chip sector.
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UMC to refit 8-inch wafer plant into 12-inch one
Taipei, June 27, 2001 (CENS)--United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Taiwan's second largest provider of wafer foundry services, indicated Wednesday that it will stop the operation of its existing 8-inch wafer plant and re-equip it to become the company's fourth 12-inch wafer plant.
Due to unsatisfactory wafer foundry orders during the past two months, UMC decided to temporarily stop the operations of its No.8B and the No.8F 8-inch wafer plants. The company will not lay off the two plants' personnel but instead offer them various options, including long leave, keeping job positions without salary, and being sent to UMC's overseas bases.
The No.8B plant is mainly for the production of network and telecommunication ICs (integrated circuits), while the No.8F plant is the newest and largest one of UMC's six 8-inch wafer plants. The floor space of the No.8F plant is enough to accommodate a foundry capacity of 40,000 wafers a month.
As the No.8F plant is currently installed with production equipment accounting for only 10% of the maximum capacity, UMC decided not to add additional production equipment for 8-inch wafers. Instead, UMC will refit the plant with 12-inch wafer production equipment, becoming UMC's fourth such plant. UMC is currently setting up three 12-inch wafer plants, namely, Trecenti in Japan, UMCi in Singapore, and the No.12A plant in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park located in Tainan County, southern Taiwan. Both Trecenti and UMCi are joint ventures. |
