UMC responded to the rumor of "going to Japan to build a new fab": there was no such thing.

CTOnews.com, February 19, according to the Taiwan Industrial and Commercial Times, UMC responded to the news that it was "considering investing 500 billion yen (currently about 25.6 billion yuan) to build a new fab in the existing plant in Sanchong Prefecture, Japan."

In 2019, UMC wholly acquired Fujitsu Semiconductor's 12-inch fab located in Sanzhong Prefecture, Japan, and established a USJC subsidiary. In April 2022, UMC announced that it would cooperate with Japan's DENSO to build the first 12-inch wafer production line at its USJC plant in Japan.

Taiwan media pointed out that at present, most IGBT are produced on 8-inch wafers, and although 8-inch wafers have been in excess supply since the second half of 2022, in the medium to long term, due to the difficulty of capacity expansion, market conditions have improved and demand has recovered.

The legal person said that power semiconductors, which were produced with 8-inch or 6-inch wafers in the past, have been converted to 12-inch wafers in recent years, but it is more difficult. If the cooperation between UMC and DENSO is successful, it will provide effective production capacity to meet the long-term demand for automotive chips.

CTOnews.com learned that UMC's January revenue fell to NT $19.59 billion (currently about 4.427 billion yuan), down 6.47% from the previous month and 4.31% from a year earlier, a 15-month low.