"We will cut output to a similar level as we did in the current quarter," Pai Pei-Lin, vice president of the Hsinchu- based chipmaker, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Pai denied a statement by Dramexchange Technology Inc. that the company will stop production at one plant for a month in January.

Taipei-based Dramexchange, Asia's biggest spot market for semiconductors, said in an e-mail today that the chipmaker will shut its so-called 12-inch factory, without saying where it got the information.