>>What is interesting I think is that the revenues have held up while bookings are
going away. To me this means there ain't much new buying going on right now -
all old stuff, perhaps mostly "maintenance" + "spare parts" minor upgrades that
sort of thing. No huge spending jumps. Maybe Katherine can corrobate that out of
traditional l/t revenues for semi-equips about 40-50% is for "semi- maintenance
revenue" etc. (thanks to GP for this rough answer).<<
Revenue has held up partly because they're still shipping equipment ordered as much as a year ago (depending on the individual company)--semi equipment isn't normally paid for until shipped and accepted by the fab's incoming QA.
I don't know about the 40-50% figure specifically for maintenance, parts, etc, but that stuff is a pretty big chunk. The number was once so big that Mattson, for instance, took a large bite out of the etch market simply by promising to reduce it for their equipment, and a very healthy third party parts market sprang up (before some of the key players went to jail for industrial espionage, but that's another story). Since then (i.e. within the last 2-3 years) maintenance costs have become more competitive, but are still high enough that everyone gripes about them.
The following isn't the definitive answer, but does provide a little bit of an indicator. This is what AMAT keeps in inventory (in thousands), from their latest 10-Q.
edgar-online.com
January 25, 1998 October 26, 1997
---------------- ----------------
Customer service spares $213,488 $207,938
Systems raw materials 135,303 106,406
Work-in-process 282,072 256,737
Finished goods 114,563 115,370
-------- --------
$745,426 $686,451
======== ========
Katherine
PS Anyone know how I can make an included chart like this one look decent? I'm an HTML-illiterate, so please be gentle. |
