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Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets!
LRCX 159.74+1.0%Dec 3 3:59 PM EST
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To: Grand Poobah who wrote (7077)10/5/1998 10:19:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire   of 10921
 
150 fabs worldwide is very low. According to the SIA membership directory (1998), SIA members alone have more than 100 fabs in the US alone. Since North America was less than half of 1997 chip production by dollars (ICE data), that's at least 200 fabs worldwide. Probably more when you remember that non-US production tends toward high volume, low dollar, chips.

As for capacity on the leading edge, ICE estimates that less than 5% of Intel's production was at 0.25 micron or below in 1997, and expected that to jump to 40% in 1998. They don't give industry-wide figures, but I'd say that far less than half of the active fabs at any given time are "leading edge."

(The SIA counts manufacturing lines, not buildings, so 4 lines in one complex counts as 4 fabs. Also, an Intel megafab making 30,000 wafers per month counts the same as a tiny defense contractor making 1/100 as many.)

Katherine
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