The future is BRIGHT for VSEA:
2001 Still Appears Bright for Chip Equipment Makers, Forecast Credit Suisse First Boston Analysts at Semi's Annual Awards Dinner
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to continued strong demand in electronic products ranging from desktop PCs to powerful Internet servers to wireless telephones, the market for semiconductors and semiconductor equipment should remain strong in 2001 ``We strongly urge investors not to ring the bell quite yet,'' said Credit Suisse First Boston stock market research analysts Charlie Glavin and John Pitzer.
The bullish outlook for the industry was one of the highlights of the 27th annual dinner and awards ceremony held this evening at the San Jose, Calif., Fairmont Hotel, sponsored by Silicon Valley-based trade group Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
SEMI represents the companies that build and sell the equipment used to make semiconductors and related components and materials. The gala evening that featured more than 500 industry executives and their guests.
The two forecast speakers noted there are currently ``mixed signals'' in the stock market, which has raised concerns over the strength of electronics demand entering into what is usually a seasonally strong period. ``We believe that the semiconductor and semiconductor capital equipment cycle is entering into the second phase of an extended upturn,'' they noted.
The two forecast speakers noted that integrated circuits (ICs) used in communications will drive much of the continued growth ahead ``as the global economy tries to close the bandwidth gap between processing power and bandwidth capabilities.'' (The term ICs is commonly used to describe the many different kinds of processors or chips used in computers and other devices and appliances.)
While this translates into communications growing at a faster rate than computing (31 percent versus 15 percent for 2001), the two noted, there are still some very compelling forces behind a strong PC market-notably huge growth from servers and a nascent corporate upgrade cycle. Most of that growth will center on laptop purchases, with sales exploding 35 percent next year, they predict.
``As we look into 2001, we expect continued growth for the semiconductor capital equipment industry, with three main drivers:
Further capacity expansion to meet demand;
New pilot facilities for 300 millimeter wafer processing; and,
The migration to newer processing technologies such as copper and
low k dielectrics.
``Supply dynamics looks very attractive at this point from our perspective,'' said Glavin and Pitzer. ``And semiconductor companies will be looking to equipment vendors as vital partners to address these needs.''
However, the two did sound one note of caution. They said the shift to smaller circuit sizes on new processors had presented more significant challenges than initially thought. Those challenges along with a tight supply chain in the equipment marketing will impose a natural cap on the growth of incremental manufacturing capacity.
The SEMI presentations included keynote speaker Ed Ross, president of TSMC North America. The company operates a ``foundry'' for so-called ``fabless'' semiconductor firms that design and build many different kinds of chips but don't have their own manufacturing plants.
The rise of foundries and fabless chip makers has been a key trend in the semiconductor and capital equipment industry in recent years.
Ross noted that the once tightly-integrated semiconductor industry has, in the past several years, ``dis-aggregated'' around specialized companies with very refined ``core competencies.'' Ross discussed the importance of this development in the year ahead, especially as it related to SEMI members and chip makers.
About Semi:
Based in San Jose, SEMI is an international trade association serving more than 2,400 companies participating in the $65 billion semiconductor and flat panel display equipment and materials markets. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Hsinchu, Moscow, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. Visit SEMI Online at www.semi.org.
SOURCE: Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International
biz.yahoo.com |
