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To: Lutz Moeller who wrote (6705)	12/27/1999 1:28:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

UMC's capacity remains booked through the third and fourth quarters of next year (READ BELOW) +++++++++++ United Micro, Hitachi In Joint Venture To Make 12-Inch Wafers TAIPEI -- United Microelectronics Corp., Taiwan's second-largest chipmaker, Monday said it will collaborate with Japan's Hitachi Ltd. to manufacture 12-inch wafers. The joint venture, to be established in February, will be a Hitachi group subsidiary, with Hitachi holding a 60% stake and United Micro the remaining 40%. The two partners will equally share the new products. The companies will initially invest about 70 billion yen ($684.7 million) to build a plant at Hitachi's existing Naka plant in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo. The planned facilities, with capacity to produce 7,000 units a month, will come onstream in January 2001 for commercial production to begin in April 2001. The 300-millimeter wafers will use technologies of 0.18-micron and beyond. The companies expect the site to become a strategic manufacturing facility, combining Hitachi's advanced process and manufacturing technology with United Micro's technology and silicon foundry expertise. "The semiconductor market has seen good demand...and we must urgently secure new capacity," said Tadashi Ishibashi, Hitachi senior vice executive and director. He added that because of the strong semiconductor demand, Hitachi's overall sales for the current fiscal year through March are expected to exceed its forecast of 660 billion yen. The two companies said they have yet to decide how much the planned joint venture will be capitalized at. Another Hitachi official noted that there will be a possibility the two companies will revise the plan after commercial production is started in 2001. "We will kick off discussions on issues such as equity shares in the project," he said. Hitachi also is considering expansion of the new plant at the Naka site in the future. "We have sufficient room for expansion, either through the joint venture or Hitachi alone," the official said, adding that the planned facility will take up only one-quarter of the area open for the project. The companies will reserve half the joint venture's capacity for Hitachi's products and the other half for products supplied to United Micro's foundry customers. Separately, Peter Chang, United Microelectronics' chief executive of foundry operations, said the company will increase chip foundry prices in early 2000. "During the first quarter, we'll raise prices...and during the third and fourth quarters, we can at (the) very least maintain pricing," Chang said. "There won't be any room for a lowering of prices." Speaking at a press conference to announce a joint venture with Hitachi, he said the price hikes won't affect UMC's long-term customers. UMC's capacity remains booked through the third and fourth quarters of next year, he added. Taiwan's chipmakers are expected to post strong earnings growth in 2000, as the global semiconductor industry continues to rebound. Chang also said UMC could well become the fourth-biggest chipmaker in the world next year, in terms of output of eight-inch equivalent wafers. The company is set to merge several units early next year in a move expected to improve efficiency and boost transparency. Meanwhile, UMC chairman Robert Tsao refused to comment on market talk the company will take a stake in another local chipmaker, Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing. Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

To: Lutz Moeller who wrote (6705)	12/28/1999 1:19:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

umc closed @112.00 +0.00 vol 112,073,520,3rd most active, new hi 114.00 ++++++++++ UMC (2303) officially announced yesterday it will enter a joint venture with Hitachi to set up the world's first 12- inch wafer plant in Japan. Hitachi will hold 60% of the joint venture and UMC will the rest. The fab will start running in April 2001. UMC plans to issue US$1bn in ADRs April 2000 at around NT$140 per ADR. ++++++++++++++++ TSMC (2330) is expected to speed up merger of TSMC-Acer. In reaction to UMC's announcements to undergo a five-in-one consolidation and enter a joint venture with Hitachi in Japan, TSMC is expected to increase the speed of its capacity expansion in order to remain the IC market leader. TSMC now holds a 30% stake of TSMC-Acer. TSMC-Acer's current monthly capacity is 30,000 8-inch wafers and its monthly sales total NT$1.6bn.