UMC posts 14.5% sales rise as shares return to trading

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday that its parent sales rose to NT$10.54 billion (US$323.3 million) last month, up from NT$10.43 billion in the previous month.

The sales figures of last month marked a rise of 14.17 percent year-on-year.

Shares of UMC gained NT$0.25 or 1.08 percent at NT$23.45 yesterday when it resumed trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. It was compared to a fall of 0.31 percent in TSMC shares and a 0.8-percent loss in the benchmark TAIEX.

Trading of UMC shares was suspended in the past two weeks to accommodate the company's capital reduction exercise.

Parent sales for the first nine months of the year amounted to NT$79.15 billion, up 1.49 percent from the year-earlier period, said the world's second-largest wafer foundry.

In the third quarter alone, parent sales rose 23.64 percent sequentially to NT$31.03 billion.

Stopping short of directly forecasting sales for the third quarter, UMC said at an Aug. 1 investor conference that wafer shipments are expected to rise by 20 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.

It also expects its third-quarter average selling price to remain flat in US dollar terms.