June sales show modest growth at UMC

LONDON — Wafer sales at the world's number two semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. were up both sequentially and year-on-year; but the growth was more modest than seasonal norms suggesting the climb out of the recessionary dip of 2008-2009 is starting to slow.

UMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) reported net sales of NT$10,335 million (about $322 million) for the month of June 2010 up 2.4 percent on the previous month and up 25.5 percent from a year before. In contrast the year-on-year growth was 35 percent in April and 34 percent in May. More telling is that in June 2009 sales increased sequentially by 9.6 percent.

For the first half of the year UMC's sales were NT$56.46 billion (about $1.76 billion), up 68.7 percent from the equivalent period in 2009.

The year-to-date totals for May and April 2010 were 103 and 83 percent ahead of the same periods for 2009. Therefore UMC's first-half sales for 2010 provide another indication of an ongoing return to more normal growth as the comparative position unwinds.

The degree to which this more modest growth is company- or foundry sector-specific will be seen when TSMC announces its June, and second quarter sales in the next few days.

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