UMC March sales rise 17% from February, TSMC down 6%

The world's top foundry is still feeling the effects of weak demand and oversupply issues in the supply chain, while UMC managed to pull up sales.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 4/11/2008

Still feeling the effects of weak demand and oversupply issues in the memory supply chain, Hsinchu, Taiwan-based semiconductor foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) today announced net sales for March on an unconsolidated basis were $876.4 million (26.6 billion New Taiwanese dollars), down 6.4% sequentially from February, but up 21.2% over March 2007.

TSMC revenues for January through March totaled $2.8 billion (85.2 billion NT), 34.5% higher than the same period in 2007.

On a consolidated basis, TSMC’s net sales for March were $894.1 million (27.1 billion NT), down 7.4% sequentially from February but 20.2% higher than March 2007. TSMC’s consolidated revenues for January through March totaled $2.9 billion (87.5 billion NT), an increase of 34.8% compared to the same period in 2007.

Meanwhile, Taiwan-based foundry challenger United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) reported March revenues of $280.4 million (8.5 billion NT), a 12.6% rise over $249.1 million (7.5 billion NT) in March 2007, and up 16.6% from $240.5 million (7.3 billion NT) in February.

For the first three months of the year, UMC’s revenues totaled $791.9 million (24 billion NT), a 4.2% increase over $759.7 million (23 billion NT) for the same time period last year.