Taiwan's UMC, the world's second largest chip foundry, behind TSMC, saw sales rise last month by a meagre 0.7 per cent over July's figure.

Compare August 2001's sales to those the company made a year ago, and the comparison is much less flattering. UMC sold NT$9.83 billion ($284.52 million) worth of chips in August 2000 - this time round, it sold just NT$3.90 billion, a fall of just over 60 per cent.

All this leaves UMC hoping that its sales will grow by at least 28 per cent this month, if it's to make even its worse-case predictions for its Q3 sales. The company's guidance is that Q3 sales will be 10-15 per cent of the NT$15 billion worth of sales it recorded for Q2. If it wants Q3 sales to fall just ten per cent of Q2's figure, it needs to experience growth of just under 47 per cent this month. ®

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