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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (3803)	10/30/2002 7:32:11 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

UMC profits in Q3, sees tougher Q4 as opportunity By Peter Clarke Semiconductor Business News (10/30/02 07:20 a.m. EST) TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Sales for the third quarter of 2002 at United Microelectronics Corp., the world's second largest foundry manufacturer of integrated circuits, have increased sequentially 3.1% to about $548 million and increased 60.2% versus the same quarter a year earlier. The company turned in a profit compared with loss a year earlier. The giant leap in sales from a year ago was mainly due to the extreme nature of UMC's year-ago figures. However, the third quarter 2002 net income of about $41 million was a 68% sequential decrease mainly due to a drop in non-operating income, the company said. As well as recording a declining profit the immediate prospects look difficult, the company indicated in its forecasts. UMC's capacity utilization dropped from 72% in the second quarter to 68% in the third quarter and is predicted to fall to the high 50% range in the fourth quarter. In addition, wafer shipments are expected to decline about seven percent while wafer average selling prices are expected to decline between 3% and 5% in the fourth quarter. The company has cut its estimates for 2002 capital expenditure by 38% from $1.3 billion to $800 million and is deferring growth in capacity until later in 2003. John Hsuan, UMC vice chairman and chief executive officer, presented a positive slant saying in a statement that a weakening market as an opportunity for UMC to gain as customers those integrated device manufacturers that intend to follow either a fab-lite strategy, or increase their outsourcing. "UMC's revenue grew 3.1 percent sequentially after an impressive 52.8 percent quarter-on-quarter improvement in the second quarter of 2002," said Hsuan in the statement. "New customer wins and increasing demand for leading-edge technology were some of the key drivers behind our third quarter performance." "0.13-micron sales showed continued increases following the volume ramp-up of new customer products and this trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. We also currently possess the foundry industry's largest 300-mm wafer capacity, and have shipped the largest quantity of logic ICs produced on 300-mm wafers. We have achieved equal or better yields for all products that are commercially fabricated on 300-mm wafers compared to those manufactured in our 200-mm facilities.”