United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) expects its 90nm process will more than double its revenue contribution in a slowing fourth quarter.
Sales for 90nm processes will exceed 5% of UMC’s revenues for the fourth quarter, compared to 2% in the third quarter, said company CEO Jackson Hu during an October 27 investor conference.
UMC is currently producing 15 products at its 90nm node, including FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), baseband ICs and high-speed SRAM, as well as other types of chips used in consumer electronic devices, Hu commented.
UMC’s known customers at the 90nm node include Xilinx and Texas Instruments (TI).
An October 20 Silicon Strategies report said TI is ramping its 90nm process at two of its own fabs and has one unidentified qualified fab with another firm coming on board by year-end. TSMC is also believed to be producing chips for TI at that process node, the report added.
Hu claimed today that UMC is currently TI’s only qualified foundry partner at the 90nm node. An October 8 Associated Press report said TI is also planning to make chips at SMIC.
Demand for other leading-edge processes will also increase next quarter, Hu said. Sales from its 0.18-micron and smaller process nodes are expected to be up by a single-digit percentage point in the fourth quarter, from 60% in the third quarter.
Fourth quarter
UMC expects ongoing inventory correction by customers will result in a slowing fourth quarter, after the foundry posted record sales of NT$34.6 billon for the third quarter.
Along with a flattish average selling price (ASP), wafer shipments for the fourth quarter will slip 15-17% from 791,000 8-inch equivalent wafers in the third quarter, Hu indicated.
UMC expects average utilization rates will be in the 70% range in the fourth quarter, compared to 94% in the third quarter. Hu attributed the sharp drop to UMC’s aggressive 12-inch capacity ramps and smaller-scale 8-inch capacity ramps.
UMC plans to increase its total quarterly capacity by 8.5% sequentially to 918,000 8-inch equivalent wafers in the fourth quarter. Capacity at the company’s 12-inch Fab 12A in Tainan will increase by 12.4% to 127,000 wafers, in the fourth quarter. UMCi at Singapore, which will become a 100% UMC subsidiary in the fourth quarter, will increase capacity by 107% to 60,000 wafers, said Peter Chan, company vice chairman.
|
UMC: 3Q 2004 financial results (NT$m) | |||||
|
|
3Q |
Q/Q |
Y/Y |
1Q-3Q |
Y/Y |
|
Net sales |
34,580 |
18.5% |
60.5% |
89,083 |
45.7% |
|
Gross profits |
11,663 |
16.0% |
130.8% |
29,333 |
129.6% |
|
Operating profits |
8,737 |
15.1% |
237.5% |
21,616 |
274.5% |
|
Net profits |
10,914 |
(14.1%) |
159.7% |
30,510 |
318.3% |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, October 2004.
|
UMC: sales breakdown by process | ||
|
Nodes (-micron) |
2Q |
3Q |
|
0.5 and above |
9% |
9% |
|
0.35 |
19% |
17% |
|
0.25 |
19% |
14% |
|
0.18 |
27% |
25% |
|
0.15 |
12% |
15% |
|
0.13 |
13% |
18% |
|
0.09 |
1% |
2% |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, October 2004.
An UMC engineer inspecting wafers during production process.
Source: UMC, October 2004.
Article edited by Jack Lu
