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UMC posts lowest monthly sales since February last year

United Microelectronics Co (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said sales last month totaled NT$7.29 billion (US$237 million), the lowest in a year, citing inventory adjustment by customers as the primary reason.

Sales last month saw an 11.3 percent drop month-on-month but a 0.68 percent increase from one year ago, the company said in an e-mailed press release.

The results were "in line with our estimate of 11 percent," Randy Abrams, a semiconductor industry analyst with Credit Suisse said in a report yesterday.

Abrams said the drop was greater than "the post-bubble seasonal average decrease of 7.4 percent month-on-month."

UMC is expected to report another 10.7 percent drop in this month's sales, in line with its forecast of a 15-percent decline in revenues this quarter from NT$23.57 billion last quarter, Abrams said.

Abrams attributed the drop in last month's sales to the Lunar New Year holidays, a strong New Taiwan dollar and a slowdown among Asian chip designers and wireless customers.

UMC's communications segment will continue to be its weakest unit this quarter as customers including local mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and Freescale Semiconductor Inc, based in Austin, Texas, adjust their inventories, mostly in China, he said.

Abrams expected an improvement in the inventory level at UMC's customers this month and in the second quarter.

In January, UMC told investors that shipments might decline by 14 percent to 15 percent this quarter and said chip prices could be flat until inventories are back at the desired level.

Bigger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is scheduled to report its sales figures for last month on Monday.

Meanwhile, smaller chipmaker Vanguard International Semiconductor Co (世界先進) yesterday cut its first-quarter outlook yesterday after reporting a 31-percent year-on-year growth, or 5.3-percent month-on-month drop, for last month's sales to NT$1.48 billion.

Revenues this quarter would be between NT$43.5 billion and NT$45 billion, around 5 percent below the company's forecast of NT$46 billion to NT$47.5 billion.

The company attributed the loss to "unfavorable exchange rates, changes in our product mix and customers rescheduling deliveries," Vanguard spokesman Robert Hsieh (謝徽榮) said.

Vanguard makes driver integrated circuits used in liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels for companies such as major shareholder TSMC.

UMC shares fell 1.64 percent to NT$18, underperforming the main bourse, which dropped 1.47 percent yesterday. TSMC and Vanguard fell 1.39 percent and 2.25 percent respectively.
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