United Microelectronics, a Taiwan-based chip manufacturer, has announced that the company made revenue of NTD8.05 billion in September 2008, a decrease of 23.6% compared with its NTD10.54 revenue in the same period last year.

The company does not mention the reason for the decline on its official website.

According to United Microelectronics' financial report for the third quarter of 2008, its total revenue in the third quarter was NTD24.75 billion, which was lower than the NTD24.75 billion in the same period last year and lower than the NTD25.24 billion in the second quarter of 2008.

Previous to this, the company said in July 2008 that the deliveries of its wafer products in the third fiscal quarter are expected to equal that of the second. Because of the global economic downturn, the average price for its products might remain unchanged or decrease by 2% at the most.

United Microelectronics says in a report that in the first nine months of 2008, the total sales of the company were NTD73.99 billion, less than last year's NTD79.15 billion. However, by these statistics, the company is still the world's second largest chip foundry manufacturer, second only to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.