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

To: StanX Long who wrote (58881)	1/16/2002 12:59:09 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

This doesn't sound good gor the SemiEquips. 01/16 00:18 UMC Says It Will Sell About a Third of Chip Equipment (Update1) By Alan Patterson quote.bloomberg.com Taipei, Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan, which said 55 percent of its chip-making operations were idle in the fourth quarter, expects to sell about a third of equipment as part of an effort to return to profit. The second-largest maker of chips for other companies posted losses for two straight quarters last year amid the worst slump in the semiconductor industry. The company has forecast a loss for the fourth quarter. UMC said it will sell 15 percent of the equipment to an unidentified buyer by March. Press reports in Taiwan have speculated the buyer is in China after UMC said last year that it planned to sell an unspecified amount of equipment. ``We plan to sell capacity equivalent to 80,000 8-inch silicon wafers per month,'' Liu Chitung, UMC's director of investor relations, said in an interview. ``We are confident of completing half of that by the end of the first quarter.'' The company doesn't plan to cut any jobs after selling the equipment. Workers have already been shifted to some of the UMC's newer plants, Liu said. UMC's move to sell off equipment will help the company improve capacity use and become profitable this year at a time when demand won't rise much from 2001, some fund managers said. ``All of these things are very good,'' said Devan Kaloo, who helps manage about $3 billion at Aberdeen Asset Management Ltd. ``They'll help UMC raise its utilization rate.'' Kaloo, who said he owns no shares in UMC, said he would buy a stake in the company at a stock price of NT$40. Shares in the company recently traded for NT$44.3. TSMC Bigger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said last week it was looking to sell unused equipment to companies in China, where the chip market is expected to grow by a third this year from 2001. UMC reported a third-quarter loss of NT$4 billion ($114 million), or 30 NT cents per share. The company in October forecast a NT$3.2 billion loss for 2001, implying a NT$3.8 billion loss for the fourth quarter after subtracting profit of NT$596 million in the first three quarters. UMC said it will give more details on the plan to sell unused equipment in its fourth-quarter earnings announcement. No date has set for the announcement, which was originally scheduled for March 30, the company said.