Semiconductor recovery fuels record Mosaid sales
OTTAWA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Mosaid Technology Inc.
(MSD-T) cashed in on better times in the semiconductor
industry and reported a 117-percent revenue gain in its
third-quarter on Thursday.
Mosaid reported net earnings of C$438,000, or 6 Canadian
cents a share, on record sales of C$12.6 million for the
quarter ended January 28. That compares with a net loss of
C$148,000, or 2 Canadian cents a share, in the year-before
quarter on sales of C$5.8 million.
Improvement in the quarter ended January 28 was driven
largely by a tripling of sales in Mosaid's systems division,
which sells test equipment.
"What you're seeing is that capacity is being used up in the
industry, the volume continues to increase and semiconductor
chip manufacturers -- the memory manufacturers in particular
-- are starting to come back and starting to invest in
infrastructure," said Mosaid Chief Executive George Cwynar.
"And that results in increases in tester sales for us."
Market projections put memory chip revenue growth at 40
percent annually over the next three years, he added.
Meantime, Mosaid said it is continuing to invest in three new
networking groups of chips including a system on a chip, or
silicon wafers that combine memory and logic.
The network chips are aimed at speeding the transport of
growing streams of voice and data traffic on networks, driven
largely by increased Internet use.
Production of the first of those chips, a device that looks up
addresses, is projected this summer, with revenues expected
in the second half of 2001.
The market for that chip is now estimated at $30 million
U.S., with projections to grow to hundreds of millions in the
next few years. |
