TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp. said that demand for chips used in PCs and other products are picking up, resulting in higher utilization rates.
The utilization rate of TSMC's fabs will top 60% in the three months to March, and the company is likely to raise the 2002 capital spending budget from $1.65 billion set two months ago due to stronger demand, Harvey Chang, chief financial officer of the Hsinchu-based foundry, said at a technology conference in Taipei held by Merrill Lynch.
UMC, which controls about two-thirds of worldwide market together with TSMC, also sees its run rates jumping to 55% - 60% in the first quarter, 70% in the second and more than 70% in the second half of this year, according to Peter Chang, a vice chairman of UMC.
The upbeat guidance from the foundries suggested that the global semiconductor industry is gaining momentum faster than expected following the industry's deepest plunge in 2001. "The inventory levels of our customers have been reducing," UMC's Chang said in the conference, adding that demand for PCs is gathering steam while demand for wireless communications and consumer electronics are recovering slowly.
"About 90% of our high-end capacity will be used in the first quarter" with growth mainly coming from PC and communications, said TSMC's CFO. "Demand of the second quarter is going to be even stronger" than now.
The two companies' views are echoed by some analysts. "TSMC has asked its design house customers to raise their order forecasts to at least two months" from one and a half months in January, increasing visibility for the industry, said Arthur Hsieh, an analyst for ABN AMRO in Taipei.
In the fourth quarter of last year, TSMC had half of its facilities under operation while UMC had 45%. TSMC's Chang didn't reveal by how much the company may increase its capital expenditure, which totaled $2.2 billion in 2001.
UMC, which had sold some of its 8-inch equipment to help boost utilization rates, said its current budget would stay the same at $800 million.
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