UMC expecting 45% growth in 1999
By Will Wade
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--After bringing two new fabs online in 1998 and predicting the end of last year's semiconductor slump, UMC Group is expecting to see its total revenues swell by nearly 45% this year. The group of foundries, headquartered in Taiwan, now has six facilities running, and the company is reporting a 35% cumulative growth rate from 1992 through this year.
"All our fabs are running at full capacity," said Jim Kupec, president of UMC Group (USA) in Sunnyvale, the foundry's U.S. marketing arm. He said last year's revenues of $1.13 billion will swell to $1.64 billion by the end of this year. "The chip slump is gone. I'm looking at it in the rearview mirror," he said.
Kupec said the company brought two new facilities online in 1998: Nippon Foundry Inc. in Japan, which was acquired in December from Nippon Steel Semiconductor Corp.; and UTEK Semiconductor Corp. in Taiwan. NFI is Japan's first pure-play foundry operation.
The foundry group will also see its total capacity more than double, from 1998's total wafer capacity of just over 1 million 8-inch wafers to more than 2 million in 2000. UMC's 0.25-micron capability is one of the factors attracting foundry customers, and its chip production at that linewidth grew from almost zero a year ago to some 40% of its total current output. UMC Group accounted for 21% of the total foundry demand last year, according to market research firm Dataquest.
"We will report record bookings in March, and expect the same in April," Kupec said. "We are entering a huge growth phase, and we are on target to top $1.6 billion this year."
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