The bad boy of the foundry biz released some good news today. Wafer shipments in Q2 will shoot up more than 110%, pushing utilization to about 75%. Uh, that's supposed to be cause for cheer in these dreary times. Remember, in Q1 utilization was a paltry 30%, causing United Microelectronics Corp. to lose US$240mn. Rush orders are helping increase short-term visibility, but it's the long-term that everyone should be worried about. It's still unclear how long it will take the industry to fully recover -- probably a long time if you're a believer that the US can't be the world's shopping mall.

Here's the link to the UMC release.

Here's the QoQ guidance:

• Wafer shipments to increase more than 110%
• Wafer ASP to decrease less than 5%
• Utilization around 75%
• Gross profit margin around 20%
• Comms segment will be strongest, followed by computer and consumer
• Capex for 2009 capped at US$400mn