dj, here is one you missed ;-)
techweb.com
Koreans Forge Ahead With Expansion
(03/02/98; 10:23 a.m. EST)
By Jack Robertson, Semiconductor Business News
South Korean chip makers are moving ahead on
major expansion projects, despite the Asian financial
crisis and challenges by the United States-based
Semiconductor Industry Association.
Samsung Electronics has confirmed reports that the
company had placed a major purchase order with
Dutch-based ASM Lithography for
sub-quarter-micron process systems to upgrade its
Korean fab complex beginning in 1999. But both
Samsung and ASML backed away from giving any
further details after word of the big order leaked out of
Europe this week.
Neither company would discuss financing of the order,
which reportedly would be in a nine-digit dollar range.
Since the financial meltdown erupted last fall,
equipment suppliers have said the cash-strapped
Korean device makers want them to finance any
purchases made. However, an ASML official
contacted this week said he doubted the lithography
company could finance the Samsung order.
Hyundai Electronics Industries and LG Semicon also
haven't backed off ambitious chip plans, despite
financial pressure and the U.S. jawboning. Hyundai,
which last week announced it was selling its
U.S.-based Symbios Logic subsidiary to Adaptec for
$775 million, still has set a 1998 sales target of $2.5
billion in chip sales -- that's 25 percent higher than last
year.
LG officials told the Korean media the company
intends to surpass Micron Technology of Boise,
Idaho, to become the largest global producer of
16-megabit dynamic RAM (DRAM) devices in
1998. LG said it will ship 315 million 16-Mbit chips
this year compared with 300 million it estimated
Micron will deliver.
At the same time, the Korea Semiconductor Industry
Association said last week it is drafting a $1.5 billion
14-year joint government-industry proposal to
develop non-memory semiconductors to diversify
from the predominant DRAM business lines of the
country's chip makers. Kim Chi-luck, KSIA
president, said the group hopes to have a
recommendation by the end of the year.
That plan is certain to draw fire from the SIA, which is
lobbying the U.S. government to prevent continued
Korean government financing of the chip industry that
it said led to present crisis. However, a spokeswoman
for Micron, which has long censured the Korean
subsidies for memory fabs, said the huge KSIA
proposal for non-memory developments wouldn't
directly impact the U.S. DRAM company. She said
Micron would support other SIA members to block
subsidized Korean efforts to develop non-memory
chips, just as SIA has backed Micron's campaign to
block unjustified financing for Korean memory fabs.
Last week, SIA continued to warn Congress that the
Koreans should finance big new competitive
expansions only on a commercially justified basis on
the same terms and conditions as U.S. chip makers.
SIA president George Scalise submitted written
testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee,
reiterating that "any new financing for these industries
must be fully market-based, and not fall below a
benchmark rate based on the credit worthiness of
each borrower."
Like most DRAM producers, Samsung has embarked
on a crash expansion and upgrading of fabs centered
on sub-quarter-micron processing. All memory
companies are in a race to shrink the current
generation 64-Mbit die to get 400 chips from a wafer,
or double the current yields. The ASML leading-edge
lithography tools are expected to supplement
Samsung's existing quarter-micron systems at its
Kiheung, Korean fab complex.
Samsung will also use the upgraded fab lines to
produce its new monolithic 128-Mbit DRAM, which
the company has already started to sample. Initially,
the new 128-Mbit chip will be made on a 0.23-micron
process, the same that will be used for 256-Mbit
DRAM samples.
Avo Kanadijian, vice president of memory marketing
for Samsung Electronics America, said he projected
that about 2.5 million 128-Mbit devices will be
shipped to U.S. customers this year. Sources said they
estimated Samsung would ship another 1.6 million
128-Mbit DRAMs this year outside the U.S. |
