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

To: Bilberry who wrote (50305)	8/9/2001 9:34:59 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

TSMC foundry sales nudge up 1% in July, while UMC decline slows Semiconductor Business News (08/09/01 08:53 a.m. EST) HSINCHU, Taiwan -- The unprecedented plunge in silicon foundry revenues could be showing signs of easing, based on July sales data released today by the world's two largest foundry companies here. For the first time since early this year, foundry revenues grew on a month-to-month basis in July at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. TSMC reported a 1% increase in sales to NT$8.60 billion ($249 million) compared to NT$8.52 billion ($246 million). However, TSMC's July sales were 42.7% lower than NT$15.02 billion ($434 million). Meanwhile, United Microelectronics Corp. here today said its sales declined slowed in July. The world's second largest pure-play chip foundry company reported an 8.6% decline to NT$3.87 billion ($113 million) in July from NT$4.24 billion ($121 million) in June. UMC's sales drop was less than the month-to-month decline of 14.4% reported for June, but last month's revenues were 58.5% below NT$9.33 billion ($270 million). A spokeswoman for TSMC said the company's revenues apparently hit the bottom in the current downturn during May and June, and she said sales have taken a "gradual upturn." The spokesperson also said TSMC's book-to-bill ratio (new orders vs. processed wafer shipments) moved above 1.0 in July. TSMC continues to believes business will gradually improve during the second half of 2001, she said. For the first seven months of 2001, TSMC revenues were NT$74.42 billion ($2.15 billion), a decline of 6.9% from NT$79.93 billion ($2.31 billion) in the same period last year. UMC's sales in the first seven months of 2001 were NT$42.47 billion ($1.23 billion), a 20% drop from NT$53.08 billion ($1.53 billion) in the same period last year. The new monthly sales reports support the general feeling that foundry revenues have hit the bottom in the current slump. With foundry fab utilization rates falling to the 25-to-35% range in the third quarter, Dataquest Inc. is predicting that those rates will gradually recovery but only reaching about 60% in the second quarter of 2002. Dataquest's latest forecast shows worldwide silicon foundry revenues dropping more than 25% to about $10.1 billion from around $13.7 billion in 2000.