Tony, Captain Morgan direct from Hong Kong. Jeff
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THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: APPLIED MATERIALS EXPECTS CONTINUED STRONG GROWTH
96% match; The South China Morning Post - Hong Kong ; 01-Jun-2000 12:00:00 am ; 346 words
Applied Materials, the world's largest maker of semiconductor equipment, said orders in the third financial quarter would be worth more than US$3 billion, exceeding the US$2.93 billion in the previous three-month period.
Chairman and chief executive James Morgan expected the semiconductor industry to continue to flourish as more applications became available.
The California-based firm, one of seven Nasdaq-listed companies to start trading on the Hong Kong exchange yesterday, develops, manufactures and markets semiconductor equipment and related spare parts for the worldwide semiconductor industry.
The company announced earlier this month that net income, excluding a one-time item, was US$454 million, up from US$143 million in the same period last year.
Mr Morgan said Applied Materials expected steady growth as the demand for their products - used in many everyday household items - increased.
"What people probably don't understand is that we touch them in more ways than other companies. All the products with chips in them - games, cameras, refrigerators . . . we are probably there with them every day. When they understand that they will see why we are an important company for the future, because we make the information in the Internet possible."
In the product sectors that Applied Materials is part of, the company's market share increased to 38 per cent this year from 28 per cent last year, he said.
Mr Morgan expected that business from Asia, which accounted for 61 per cent of orders in the second quarter, would continue to grow and the mainland would grow tremendously in the next few years.
He said mainland business, which now has turnover of only US$50 million to US$100 million, was expected to increase by 500 per cent in the next three years. This meant the mainland market was expected to generate sales of as much as US$600 million over the next three years.
Mr Morgan said joining the pilot scheme for Nasdaq stocks to trade in Hong Kong was part of its strategy to build a global company. It was a major step in the development of a 24-hour global trading system.
"We are a global company, with global customers, suppliers, employees as well as global investors. We try to serve each group on a global basis," he said.
Hong Kong was the first place to participate in the scheme, with Osaka set to start trading in Nasdaq stocks later this month.
"We will go wherever Nasdaq goes," Mr Morgan said. |
