According to the two major Taiwanese chip foundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation, both of the two companies' revenue decreased by about 60% in January 2009.
TSMC says in a report that its revenue in the first month of 2009 was NTD12.436 billion, which decreased 5.5% compared with the previous month and a year-on-year decrease of 58.9%. This has been the largest revenue decline since the company was listed in 1994 and this monthly revenue has also been the company's lowest since February 2003.
UMC's financial report shows that in January 2009, it made revenue of NTD3.153 billion, which decreased 31.6% compared with the previous month and a year-on-year decrease of 61.6.
As the world's two leading chip foundries, TSMC and UMC occupy a combined market share of two-thirds of the semiconductor foundry sector.