HSINCHU, Taiwan -- The world's two largest silicon foundries here today (April 9) said revenues were more than 25% sequentially lower in the first quarter of 2001 compared to sales in Q4 of 2000. Both foundries giants--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp.--are being impacted by the severe downturn in the chip industry.
TSMC--the world's largest foundry supplier--reported a 26.6% sequential drop in first-quarter sales from the prior three-month period, while UMC said its revenues declined 25.9% in Q1 compared to Q4.
For the first quarter, TSMC's revenues totaled NT$39.52 billion ($1.2 billion), with March sales coming in at NT$11.75 billion ($358 million). TSMC said March revenues were 1.2% higher than NT$11.61 billion in February and 18.3% higher than NT$9.93 billion in March 2000.
Meanwhile, UMC said its first-quarter revenues totaled NT$23.59 billion ($718 million) with March sales coming in at NT$6.59 billion ($201 million). UMC's March sales were 12.2% sequentially lower than NT$7.50 billion in February and 4.5% below NT$6.90 billion in March 2000.
TSMC's first quarter revenues of NT$39.52 billion were 39.8% higher than NT$28.28 billion in the first quarter of 2000. UMC said its Q1 revenues of NT$23.59 billion were 22.2% higher than NT$19.31 billion in the first three months of 2000.
