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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (42173)	2/14/2001 10:07:55 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

UMC delays 8-inch fab expansion, but pushes ahead with 300-mm Foundry company reports 8% sequential increase in Q4 sales, plans to cut capital spending 46% to $1.5 billion in 2001 Semiconductor Business News (02/14/01 06:36 a.m. PST) TAIPEI, Taiwan -- United Microelectronics Corp. plans to push out expansion of 8-inch wafer fab capacity until market conditions improve, and it has slashed its capital spending budget for 2001 by nearly one half to $1.5 billion. But the world's second largest chip foundry today (Feb. 14) said it will invest a "significant portion" of its 2001capital expenditures in on new 12-inch (300-mm) fabs. UMC disclosed its revised plans for investments and capacity expansion in 2001 while releasing fourth-quarter results. The company reported an 8% sequential increase in net sales to NT$31.85 billion ($995 million) in the fourth quarter compared to NT$29.48 billion ($916 million) in the prior third quarter of 2000. Compared to Q4 of 1999, UMC's sales were up 77% from NT$18.03 billion ($560 million). The Taiwan foundry company posted a net income of NT$16.71 billion ($519 million) in the fourth quarter of 2000 vs. a profit of NT$7.22 billion ($224 million) in the period a year ago. Last week, UMC's archrival--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), reported a 13% sequential gain in revenues to $NT53.82 billion ($1.67 billion) in Q4 of 2000 from the prior third-quarter period and a net income of NT$21.47 billion ($667 million) in the last quarter (see Feb. 6 story). Both Taiwan foundry companies, as well as other competitors worldwide, are reporting slower demand for processed wafers as the chip industry slips further into a slump. To deal with the slowing market growth, UMC said it plans to put off expansion of 200-mm fab capacity and focus a greater percentage of its efforts on next-generation 300-mm plants. UMC has now cut its capital spending plans for 2001 to $1.5 billion from $2.8 billion in 2000--a 46% drop. UMC's capital spending budget is at it's lowest level since 1997. A recent survey of chip makers by Lehman Brothers Inc. suggested that UMC had trimmed its previous capital spending plans for 2001 by 10% to $2.6 billion, but today's announcement by the Taiwan foundry shows an additional $1.1 billion cut from investments this year. News of this additional reduction comes after TSMC announced it was lopping $1.1 billion from its 2001 capital spending plans to $2.7 billion instead of $3.8 billion as originally planned (see story). UMC said it now plans to increase its total fab production capacity by 27% to 3.28 million eight-inch equivalent wafers vs. 2.58 million in 2000. UMC reported that it increased its capacity 43% in 2000 from 1.81 million eight-inch equivalent wafers in 1999. (These totals include joint-venture capacity managed by UMC at Nippon Foundry Inc. and Trecenti Technologies Inc. in Japan.) UMC's 300-mm Trecenti joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. is expected to process 68,000 wafers in 2001, while the company's 300-mm Fab 12 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is scheduled to fabricate 32,000 wafers by the end of this year. Last week, TSMC said it will increase capacity 33% to 4.5 million eight-inch equivalent wafers in 2001 from 3.4 million in 2000. TSMC is now constructing two 300-mm wafer production facilities--one in Hsinchu and the other in Tainan, located in southern Taiwan. TSMC's Fab 12 in Hsinchu is now slated to begin processing silicon in the fourth quarter of 2001 with a capacity to handle 2,000 wafers a months in December. Subject 50522