October 23, 2003 – UMC plans to build new chip plants ahead of an anticipated pickup in demand, according to a Dow Jones report.

“We will be very aggressive in capacity expansion, especially in the 300mm area,” said chairman Robert Tsao, at the opening of FSA’s Asia-Pacific office. UMC has a pair of 300mm facilities in Taiwan and Singapore, and is “considering building more, faster, and in other countries,” he said.

The statement was in response to a concern that chipmakers current production lines won’t be able to meet a growing number of orders.