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To: DJBEINO who wrote (9465)	9/4/2001 1:45:35 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

Orders for September up at TSMC and UMC Coming into the traditional peak season for PCs and consumer electronics, leading foundries Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) saw slight growth in orders received for September, each reporting increases of around 10,000 wafers from August. Affected by the global economic slowdown and chip stockpiles, utilization rates in foundries slid all the way from 70% in the first quarter to below 40% in the beginning of the third. But now signs of an upswing seem to be slowly emerging. Sources from within the semiconductor industry pointed out that TSMC’s shipments in September are expected to reach 140,000 wafers, growing from 130,000 in July and August. Although the company’s July shipments dropped from June’s 140,000 wafers, its production based on 0.13 and 0.15-micron geometry has been increasing since July, as the company’s clients gradually adopt the advanced technology. So far, TSMC has shipped about 6,000 0.15-micron-processed wafers and 1,000 0.13-micron-based products, mainly for graphics chips and microprocessors. Industry sources said that UMC’s August orders increased by 15% from July, and the company received orders for about 10,000 more wafers in September than in the previous month. Despite the growth, companies from the semiconductor industry also noted that it will be difficult for foundries to achieve great improvement in their utilization rates. IC design houses like Altera and Xilinx have been wary about placing large orders, due to their excessive inventories and weak market conditions, while IDMs (integrated device manufacturers) have also been reluctant to outsource production, since they’re own production lines are running at much less than full capacity.

To: DJBEINO who wrote (9465)	9/5/2001 1:43:40 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

UMC (2303)closed @40.00 -0.30 vol 30,830,552 +++++++++ September 4 net purchase 6,063,000 shares +++++++ TAIWAN WEIGHTED closed @ 4424.91 -68.62 (-1.53%) Day's Range :4410.78 - 4510.58 +++++++++++ Conexant Systems and UMC yesterday announced a five-year agreement yesterday that makes UMC the principal advanced CMOS semiconductor wafer supplier for Conexant's personal networking business. UMC (2303 TT) has manufactured integrated circuits for Conexant since 1998. The details, including the quantity of wafers to be supplied, were not disclosed. According to the “Economic Daily,” communication IC design company Broadcom also began to place more orders with TSMC (2330 TT), reaching as high as 10K wafers/month. It seems to us that inventory digestion in the communication industry has come to an end, leading communication companies to begin booking orders to Taiwan IC foundries. Although it is unlikely that the communication sector can again become the driving force, higher demand will help capacity utilization rates and gross margins of IC foundries increase steadily, which is encouraging news

To: DJBEINO who wrote (9465)	9/5/2001 1:43:41 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

Chartered <CSMF.SI> sinks on UMC-Conexant deal 9/4/01 8:57 PM Source: Reuters SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Shares of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd tumbled nearly four percent on Wednesday after a Taiwanese rival signed a wafer-supply deal with its key customer Conexant Systems Inc. The world's second largest microchip foundry, United Microelectronics Corp, said on Wednesday it had inked a five-year agreement to supply semiconductors to the U.S. based communications chip maker. The agreement covers the latest 0.18-micron and below process technologies. Chartered, the world's third largest contract manufacturer of microchips, ranks Conexant as one of its top five customers. "Chartered sank about one percent at the open on the back of the news," said Marc Julienne, an institutional sales dealer with SG Securities. At 0345 GMT, Chartered was down 3.72 percent or 18 cents to S$4.66, but off a day low of S$4.64, on a volume of over three million shares. Pranab Kumar Sarmah, analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, said Chartered's share price losses were limited by the fact that the market had got wind of the news as far back as June. In June, market rumours had swirled that Chartered might lose Conexant as a customer to UMC. Chartered's stock has performed more or less in line with the broader Straits Times Index in the last six months. Analysts said the UMC-Conexant deal highlights the widening technology gap between Chartered and its Taiwanese rivals, which is negative for the company in the long term. "UMC's Conexant deal cuts Chartered out of a certain proportion of the business as Chartered's 0.18-micron and below technologies are still not commercially available and full commercial production would only commence in the third quarter of 2002," said Gregory Yap, research manager at OCBC Investment Research.

To: DJBEINO who wrote (9465)	9/5/2001 1:43:41 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9582

UMC (2303)closed @40.00 -0.30 vol 30,830,552 +++++++++ September 4 net purchase 6,063,000 shares +++++++ TAIWAN WEIGHTED closed @ 4424.91 -68.62 (-1.53%) Day's Range :4410.78 - 4510.58 +++++++++++ Conexant Systems and UMC yesterday announced a five-year agreement yesterday that makes UMC the principal advanced CMOS semiconductor wafer supplier for Conexant's personal networking business. UMC (2303 TT) has manufactured integrated circuits for Conexant since 1998. The details, including the quantity of wafers to be supplied, were not disclosed. According to the “Economic Daily,” communication IC design company Broadcom also began to place more orders with TSMC (2330 TT), reaching as high as 10K wafers/month. It seems to us that inventory digestion in the communication industry has come to an end, leading communication companies to begin booking orders to Taiwan IC foundries. Although it is unlikely that the communication sector can again become the driving force, higher demand will help capacity utilization rates and gross margins of IC foundries increase steadily, which is encouraging news