Thanks for the news, Brian..
Yes, driven by the uptick in the consumer electronics business,
Japanese chipmakers are finally opening up their purses.
LRCX's market penetration in Japan has been extremely
successful. Expect the revenue from Japan to more than
double this Q from the previous yr's level. Also Q to Q
growth in this region should be very good..
Also, LRCX has been also very successful in gaining
some market share in Europe. Remember the past press
release that STM Electronics, which announced record earning this morning, uses 100% LRCX etch tool (
from poly to oxide etch).
If the things go well in Korea as I am suspecting,
We are going to see a substantial earning increase
from previous Q. The market share gain in oxide
etch over Japanese competitors are very apparent
in samsung order for Fab 10. LRCX with Exelan secured
about 40% of oxide etch order, just behind AMAT.
TEL has been traditionally very strong but they were
distant 3rd runner up. In late April, there will be
additional shipments to Samsung for phase 2 of equipment
installation. The business prospect for Hyundai looks
even stronger. Depending on how LRCX does with Hyundai
account, LRCX can show a very excellent earning growth
in current and next Q.
In Taiwan, things cannot be more robust... The foundaries
are in a hurry to expand their capacity since they cannot
meet all the demand.. Fab utilization is running at near full
capacity.
Even though things were a little bit slow in the north
American region for LRCX, things are looking up.
I think LRCX did very well with motorola account in the
oxide etch market and was able to snatch some market share
from AMAT. TXN also showing much interest in LRCX product.
Personally, i would like to see LRCX penetrate INTEL account.
Finally, I have been hearing that LRCX might be very
close to releasing a new etcher. I think this product
might be an improved version of 9100 oxide etcher, which
is high density plasma etcher.
I continue to remain long on LRCX.. |
