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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (22842)	8/9/1999 11:34:00 PM
From: cluka	Respond to of 25960

Couple of excerpts from Salomon Smith Barney report on their trip to Far East. For a full report go to smithbarneyresearch.com WSMC - Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (Taiwan) Fab 1 increasing to 20k/month by October and 32k/month by December. Fab 1 peak capacity at 32k/month. Most equipment orders have already been placed and the equipment is currently in the process of being delivered. Fab 2 clean room construction started and first equipment move-in by Dec. 1st and pilot runs in 1Q00. Pilot line capacity of 5k/month. First round orders will be placed in the next 0-3 months. Cap. ex. in 1999 and 2000 roughly NT$ 20 billion (roughly in line with our forecasts). Fab 1 scanners were Nikon and Fab 2 decision is between Nikon and ASML. SVG has dropped out of contention. Nikon 204 requires a larger setup time, provides a lower throughput than comparable ASML scanner, however, is 20%-25% cheaper. Nikon The company expects to ship 270 steppers/scanners in March 2000 fiscal year, which is up slightly from 240 systems in March 1999. The March 2000 fiscal year shipments should see a 40/60 shipment split between the first half and second half. Orders were very strong in the January-April time period driven by Samsung Line 9, Sony, Toshiba and other investments. Since then inquiries are still continuing at a good pace, however, order bookings are not coming in perfectly. Nevertheless, the company expects up orders and shipments to be up in the second half versus the first half. Lead times are currently 10 months for an i-line system and 13 months for a KrF stepper/scanner. Lead times could be slightly shorter for the Tier 1 customers. The company expects to ship 10 ArF systems in March 2000 fiscal year (with ASML expected to ship 7). Nikon expects to launch a production version of the ArF machine in 2001 for 300 mm production. The company expects "some" NSR 204 shipments in the second half of 1999, and expects a full conversion to the 204 in fiscal 2000. Even though the 204 provides a 30% higher throughput than the 203, the company expects the pricing to only increase by 50 million yen to 900 million yen.

To: FJB who wrote (22842)	8/10/1999 7:38:00 AM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25960

Robert, you need to take my comment in the context these were presented. CYMI will have to do their own strategic planning. I was responding to a question/proposition relative to CYMI using its technology in the medical field. What I pointed out to is that a company like CYMI, which has its genesis in its unique technological expertise in excimer lasers, has in essence two options when looking at expansion. The first is find completely new markets for its existing technology, the second is to find (adapt, develop, acquire, whichever) new technologies (or products) for its existing markets. CYMI's technological prowess in the field of excimer lasers allowed them to build a presence (distribution, service, brand name) in the semiconductor market, it would be the natural thing to find out what additional "widgets" these markets need to exploit this marketing infrastructure (that is what we call "market driven approach" to expansion). This approach, if selected is best implemented, near bottoms of the semi cycle when other companies serving that markets are valued at rock bottom. An alternative approach to assuring future continuous growth (which is not necessarily exclusive of the first) is to find and develop completely new markets for its existing technology. An approach with has been quite successfully implemented, for instance, by Thermoelectron. I am not telling CYMI which is best, because, I do not know which is best. All I said is that I could not see any evidence that either were in "motion". It is quite possible that this is even too early in CYMI "corporate life", since we must assume that they are still struggling to execute the establishment of a "market driven" philosophy within the market they operate (thus the very large expenditures last year in establishing a worldwide service organization). Zeev