Paul
have you heard about delays with Ireland fab and Taiwan storage?
Yet Intel is still committed to 7.5B exp
Regards
-Mad Albert
Intel Delays Start of Ireland Plant as Demand Wanes (Update1)
2001-03-14 16:17 (New York)
Intel Delays Start of Ireland Plant as Demand Wanes (Update1)
(Updates with closing share price.)
Leixlip, Ireland, March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. said it
will delay starting production at a new semiconductor plant in
Ireland as the No. 1 computer-chip maker copes with falling demand
and slowing economic growth.
The company will open the $2 billion factory in Leixlip,
outside Dublin, in the third quarter of 2003 instead of the second
half of 2002, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said.
The move comes a week after Intel said first-quarter sales
will miss its previous estimate, the third straight period in
which the company has cut its targets mid-quarter. Sales will fall
25 percent from the prior period as customers work through
leftover chip inventory they bought before demand slumped, the
company said.
``We made some scheduling changes in our manufacturing
roadmap,'' Mulloy said. ``That's normal for business conditions
and for changes to the technical roadmap. This is both.''
Intel and other chipmakers are gradually shrinking the width
of wires in their circuits. The Santa Clara, California-based
company had hoped to build chips with 0.13 micron wires at the
Ireland plant. Now, it will wait and use smaller, 0.1 micron
connections, Mulloy said.
The chipmaker still plans capital spending of $7.5 billion
this year, as announced in January and reiterated with last week's
reduced outlook, he said.
``That forecast has not changed, but given the current
economic environment, (postponing the project) is a prudent sort
of thing to do,'' Mulloy said.
It's the second delay in recent months for the plant. Intel
decided in December to put off starting production at the plant
until the second half of 2002, instead of the second half of 2001.
The company blamed that change on a new plan to make chips on
larger, 300-millimeter wafers, instead of the standard 200mm ones,
at the facility.
Intel shares fell 31 cents to $29.06. They've lost
62 percent of their value since reaching a record in August.
The latest delay was reported earlier by Irish news agency
RTE on its Web site.
(RTE 3/14)
For the news agency's Web site, see {RTEO <GO>}.
--Cesca Antonelli in the San Francisco newsroom (415) 743-3532, or
at fantonelli@bloomberg.net, with reporting by Amy Brown in London
/jac
Story illustration: For a graph of Intel shares, a quote recap and
a chart of its value relative to peers, see
{INTC US <Equity> BQ <GO>}
Companies:
INTC US <Equity> CN
NI codes:
NI IRELAND
NI NIREL
NI LABOR
NI SEM
NI CPR
NI TEC
NI UK
NI EUROP
NI US
NI COS
NI CA
NI SUM
-0- (BN ) Mar/14/2001 21:17 GMT |
