Jan. 31, 2002 – Taipei, Taiwan – Several chipmakers in Taiwan have decided to postpone the annual overhaul of their production equipment until March or April in order to boost output of semiconductors during the first quarter.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Macronix International, Winbond Electronics, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., and Nanya Technology Corp. will all keep their equipment running at full capacity during the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays stretching for one week in mid-February, reported the Financial Times.

Executives at Nanya said the shortage of DRAM chips on the market has not yet been alleviated. They have asked the chip testing and packaging companies to support the production and meet customers’ demand.

TSMC will only carry out equipment maintenance at its plant for 300mm wafers during the long holidays since the plant has not fully utilized its capacity yet. But the overhaul maintenance of all 200mm wafer plants will be pushed to March or April.

Some of other companies, including United Microelectronics Corp., have moved up the overhaul work to January so that they may continue full-scale manufacturing operations in February.