UMC names Robert Tsao as chairman amid slump

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC 聯電), the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it appointed a new chairman as part of a reorganization to cope with a slowdown in demand for semiconductors.

Robert Tsao (曹興誠), who was earlier chairman of the UMC Group, will replace John Hsuan (宣明智), the firm said. Hsuan will join Peter Chang (張崇德) and Liu Ing-dar (劉英達) as deputy chairmen. Chang was previously president and Liu was vice chairman.

"There have been a lot of changes in this industry downturn," said Alex Tseng, a spokesman for UMC. "We need very strong cooperation in our management."

The slump in the electronics industry has left half of UMC's chip-making capacity idle. Still, investors said they did not expect the reorganization because the industry slowdown has hurt UMC and its biggest rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). TSMC, so far, has not changed management.

The UMC Group (聯電集團) of companies includes subsidiaries in the electronics business.