Taipei, June 10, 2010 (CENS)--United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) saw its revenue for May hit a 30-month high of NT$10.09 billion (US$315 million at US$1:NT$32), growing 8.27% from a month earlier and a staggering 34.28% year on year.

Institutional investors estimate Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), UMC`s archrival in pure silicon foundry industry, to report an encouraging sales of NT$35 billion (US$1.09 billion) for May.

Normally, the second quarter is an anemic season for the electronics industry. Nevertheless, the top two foundry suppliers are estimated to end the second quarter with tight capacity in light of persistently increased foundry contracts from design houses and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs).

UMC`s executives pointed out the company`s 200-mm and 300-mm fabs are running at full capacity because of brisk demands for consumer electronics, computers and telecommunication equipment. In the first five months this year, the company had cumulative revenue of NT$46.1 billion (US$1.4 billion), soaring 82.82% from the same period of last year.

In the second quarter, the TSMC is estimated to have consolidated revenue of NT$100-102 billion (US$3.12-3.18 billion) while UMC is set to have NT$29.5 billion (US$921 million).

Industry watchers estimated prosperous sales at the two foundries to persist into the third quarter at least. They pointed out that at UMC contracts for 65-nm process foundry would be the largest amount of all the third quarter.

TSMC Vice Chairman F.C. Tseng pointed out that market prospect for this year is quite bright and market demand will remain strong through the third quarter. Although the fourth quarter is also a lukewarm season of a year, Tseng also forecast a promising market prospect for that quarter.

TSMC has been vigorously boosting 40-nm production capacity at its 300-mm wafer factories in the Hsinchu Science Park and the Southern Taiwan Science Park to cope with swarming orders from Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek and TI.

(by Ken Liu)