November 1, 2001 – Taipei, Taiwan – United Microelectronics Corp. is forecasting that it will post a quarterly growth of 10% in the last quarter of 2001, according to John Shuan, vice chairman of UMC.
Shuan also reported that UMC sales next year would be better than this year. However, he also noted that next year may still be affected by many uncertainties. The company’s revenues in the third quarter were NT$11.96 billion with a gross loss of NT$2.5 billion. The after-tax net loss was NT$4.02 billion with an earnings per share of NT$0.30.
UMC’s revenues in the third quarter declined by 20.3%, compared with the second quarter.
The company sold 323,000 pieces of silicon wafers in the third quarter as the production capacity was running at 40% of installed capacity. The average sales price in the period was 14% lower than the second quarter.
He pointed out that UMC has weathered the bottom in the third quarter and is now bouncing back. The gross profit rate would be a positive number, and production capacity utilization rate might be in the range from upward of 40 to 45 %.