The car industry, hit hard by chip shortages, has been scrambling for foundry capacity support. UMC's latest US$3.5 billion fab expansion project has already obtained pre-payment commitments from chip vendors, the latest reportedly being NXP. Notebook vendors do not expect demand to weaken much in 2020, with current notebook supply remaining far short of demand amid serious component shortages. For Acer, PC sales are booming, but its non-PC business has seen even stronger growth.
NXP is yet another vendor striking long-term deal with UMC: NXP Semiconductors is another chip vendor which has struck a long-term deal with United Microelectronics (UMC) under which the pure-play foundry will have some of its newly-established production capacity reserved for the customer for as long as six years, according to industry sources.
Global top-5 notebook brands expect 2022 shipments to remain stable: Global top-5 notebook brands, not including Apple, expect demand for notebooks to stay robust in the second half of 2021 and believe notebook shipments are unlikely to experience a major drop in 2022, according to sources from the related upstream supply chain.
Acer non-PC business booming: Acer has seen its non-PC business grow significantly recently along with its booming PC sales, according to company chairman Jason Chen
