Far eastern chip makers report business on the up

AFTER A PROLONGED period of economic anorexia, it would appear the market is craving some chip fat again, with Taiwanese chipmaking giants TSMC and UMC both claiming sales growth in April.

Both firms kicked off Q2 '09 with a little more optimism and with stronger sales and fatter profit margin forecasts as China’s stimulus plan seems to have kicked in, causing  virgin consumers to crave shiny new gadgets once again.

TSMC's April sales totaled $657 million, which although down 22.6 per cent from the same quarter in 2008, is up 60 per cent from March.  It marks the firm’s second month-on-month rise in a row.

UMC, meanwhile, posted April sales of $207.6 million down 19 per cent annually but well up from March’s $137 million total.

Over the whole first quarter, TSMC’s sales were down 46.8 per cent from Q1 '08, and UMC’s $535.5 million was also down 46 per cent from the previous year.

TSMC has played reshuffle with some of its management teams across Taiwan, China and Singapore, also adding a new team within the firm to look in to the cash-rich energy-saving market.

The foundry giant is pushing deeper into the Chinese market and hopes that by putting individual executives in charge of each fab, the firm will be  more efficient.

The Taiwanese chipmaker currently counts 10 fabs, including  five eight-inch wafer facilities, two 12-inch facilities, an eight-inch fab in Shanghai plus a joint-venture fab in Singapore operated with SSMC.

Global Foundries may have some catching up to do. µ