LONDON – Sales revenue at foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) bounced strongly into annual growth in July after being in negative territory for the first five months of 2012.
UMC's July figures may have been helped by strong orders just behind the leading edge which is currently at the 28-nm manufacturing node, for which supply is constrained. UMC's July sales were NT$9,613 million (about $320 million), up 9.1 percent on the same month in 2011 and up 3.5 percent on sales in June 2012.
In the first seven months of 2012 UMC has sold NT$60,998 million worth of wafers (about $2.0 billion), which is still 6.3 percent down on sales in the first seven months of 2011.
The strength of the second half recovery will determine whether UMC and the industry as a whole will in 2012 be ahead or behind sales performance in 2011. The third quarter is usually the strongest quarter in sequential growth terms while the fourth quarter is usually flat to a few percent down. Rival foundry TSMC has advised that it expects a revenue downturn is expected in the fourth quarter.
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