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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant?
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To: olduvai5 who wrote (3861)10/4/1998 8:29:00 AM
From: Carl R.  Read Replies (1) of 4697
 
Olduvai5, we are seeing a large amount of older fab capacity coming off line, which is good for the semi industry but bad for WFR. We are also seeing selective investment in shrinks rather than construction of new fabs. This increased oversupply conditions of chips, decreased the need for new fabs, and has probably hurt WFR. I am curious as to your opinion of where the wafer fabrication industry is as related to the semi industry at this point in time.

There have been only a few closings of wafer production facilities that I recall. WFR closed Spartansburg which made smaller wafers as I recall. I think I saw Hitachi closing an in-house epitaxial facility, and someone closed a plant that made 200mm wafers. Given the number of fab closings, if all the fabs that remain ran full bore, would the existing semi industry production capacity be sufficient to use all the wafers that could be produced? My suspicion is that the answer is no, which means that the wafer producers need to close a few plants of their own in order for things to get back in balance.

Do you have any idea whether or not the semi industry as a whole could possibly use all the available wafer capacity even if it ran at full bore?

Carl

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