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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant?
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To: Scotsman who wrote (3422)6/4/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: All Mtn Ski   of 4697
 
Wafer starts:

There's life in 5-inch and
6-inch wafer fabs

By Jack Robertson

OSAKA, Japan -- A semiconductor market
report from SEMI Semicon Kansai here disclosed
the surprising projection that trailing-edge 5-inch
and 6-inch wafer fabs will continue producing
about the same number of chips annually through
2003.

Yasuo Komatsuzaki, manager of market statistics
for SEMI Japan, said that 6-inch-wafer starts
around the world will hold steady at just under
500,000 per month for the next five years, while
5-inch-wafer starts will ease slightly to 200,000
per month in the same period.

He also reported that 8-inch-wafer starts each
year month will continue to mushroom through
2003 to 650,000 per mnth by 2003--a jump from
450,000 wafer starts per month this year. Coupled
with rapid die shrinks on the wfaers during this
period, this portends a continuing avalanche of
chips on the market.

With all the attention on 8-inch and the upcoming
12-inch wafers, the long continuing life of 5-inch
and 6-inch wafer fabs has received little attention.
Although yields of the old fabs are far behind
modern 8-inch plants, these venerable facilities
have been depreciated for years and so continue to
be low-cost operations.

The majority of 5-inch and 6-inch fabs are in
Asia--particularly Japan and South
Korea--although a bevy of U.S. logic-chip makers
also continue to operate the smaller wafer size
plants.

Komatsuzaki predicted minimal 12-inch wafer
starts in 2001, ramping up to 100,000 starts a
month by 2003.
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