UMC: in the first quarter, the visibility of orders was low, and the capacity utilization rate dropped to 70%.

CTOnews.com March 7 news, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily, the wafer foundry said that the visibility of orders in the first quarter was low, the estimated wafer shipments decreased by 17-19% month-on-month, and the capacity utilization rate will drop to 70%. It is expected that demand will gradually pick up in the second half of the year as the industry continues to eliminate inventory.

Financial data show that UMC's February revenue fell to NT $16.931 billion (CTOnews.com note: about RMB 3.826 billion), down 13.56 per cent from a month earlier and 18.64 per cent year-on-year, the lowest in nearly 22 months. Cumulative revenue in the first two months of this year was NT $36.52 billion (currently about 8.254 billion yuan), down 11.53 per cent from a year earlier.

UMC pointed out that from an application point of view, demand for mobile phones, PC and consumer electronics continued to be weak in the first half of the year, and customers still put de-inventory as the top priority. It is expected that the situation will gradually improve, and inventory will move towards a healthy level. It is cautiously optimistic that demand will gradually pick up in the second half of the year, and the average product price forecast for the whole year will remain stable.

In terms of capital expenditure, UMC plans to spend $3 billion this year (currently about 20.82 billion yuan), of which 90 per cent is spent on 12-inch factories and the rest on 8-inch factories.

For comparison, UMC earned NT $19.59 billion (currently about RMB 4.427 billion) in January 2023, down 6.47% from the previous month and 4.31% year-on-year, with revenue of NT $278.705 billion (currently about NT $62.987 billion) in 2022, an increase of 30.8% over the same period last year.