Mr. Po-Wen Yen, CEO of UMC, said “In the third quarter, our foundry revenue grew 2.9% sequentially to NT$33.51 billion. Foundry operating margin was 8.8%. Overall capacity utilization reached 93%, led by increasing demand from communication products such as handsets and tablet devices, bringing wafer shipments to 1.462 million 8-inch equivalent wafers.”

Po-Wen Yen stressed that 24% of revenue came from 40nm, while 28nm contribution rose from 1% to 3% quarter-over-quarter, demonstrating the sustained traction of UMC’s leading edge geometries. 28nm yield progress for poly-SiON & gate-last, High-K Metal Gate products has continued to improve, which will drive significant production ramp during the fourth quarter,

“This progress will help attract multiple waves of new customers and products to strengthen UMC’s 28nm growth and further diversify our customer base in advanced nodes.” Po-Wen Yen said.