Taiwan-based contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) announced Thursday that operations at its subsidiary in Suzhou, China had fully resumed after worries over a cluster infection there subsided.
In a statement, UMC said operations had immediately resumed at the Chinese subsidiary run by HeJian Technology (Suzhou) Co. following the approval of Chinese authorities.
Authorities granted the subsidiary permission to resume full operations after several rounds of mass PCR testing showed that no other workers had been infected by an employee who was confirmed as having COVID-19 earlier in the month.
The Suzhou plant suspended 8-inch wafer production on Feb. 14 following the infection to assist with the local authorities’ blanket screening of all workers for COVID-19.
On Feb. 14, UMC said it remained upbeat about its first-quarter sales despite the incident, given that HeJian’s monthly production value only accounted for around 5 percent of the company’s total revenue.
UMC also predicted that its first-quarter shipments would remain stable, and that product prices and gross margin would rise by 5 percent and 40 percent, respectively, which prompted analysts to forecast a new quarterly high for the company’s revenue.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel