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To: Victor who wrote (1441)	9/15/1999 5:32:00 PM
From: Victor	Respond to of 7825

INTERVIEW-Applied upbeat on chip recovery By Yoo Choon-sik SEOUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The global semiconductor equipment industry is poised for a strong recovery as major chip makers are expected to resume spending on capacity expansion soon, the head of Applied Materials Inc (Nasdaq:AMAT - news) said on Wednesday. ``It could be any time. They have (investment) plans already in place. The question is when do they place their orders,' Applied Chairman James Morgan told Reuters in an interview. He said the rising dynamic random access memory (DRAM) price, driven by the stronger-than-expected personal computer sales and strong demand from other sectors, should encourage major chip makers to resume spending after years of cut-backs. ``PCs are up much more than people expected and then everything else is in short supply,' Morgan said. He said the 64-megabit DRAM spot price stood at $15 per unit, more than three times this year's lowest level of $4 seen in May-June. In addition to the recovering DRAM sector, Morgan said the world semiconductor equipment industry should also benefit from the increasing introduction by chipmakers of new technologies. ``We would expect (the industry) to be up this coming year. We said earlier it would be 12 percent or 15 percent in 1999. It looks like the year 2000 (will see) more,' he said. Applied is the world's largest maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and last month posted an impressive 62 percent growth in its third-quarter sales from a year earlier. ``(The driving force) would be a general industry demand across the board, and then we've introduced a large number of new products which have been well accepted by the customers and so we will see gains from that,' Morgan said. He said the future growth of the semiconductor equipment industry would be led by three waves of technological changes aimed at reducing the chip size, adopting new materials for chip production and enlarging the size of wafers. The industry's much-anticipated move to the so-called 300 mm technology had been delayed because of the Asian financial crisis since mid-1997 which made the world's leading memory chip makers based in the region almost freeze major spending plans. Analysts say the new standard -- where silicon wafers will be 300 mm (12 inches) across versus 200 mm (8 inches) now -- is widely expected to help makers cut production costs by some 30 percent while increasing output per wafer. ``It's mainly because no one wants to be first,' Morgan said. ``But some development lines will go in place in the next 12 months and then the production will come in 2002 or 2003.' Only a few of the world's major semiconductor makers, such as Samsung Electronics Co and Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - news), were investing in the 300 mm technology, all for development purposes rather than for commercial production, analysts say. Morgan said he agreed with analysts' suggestions that Japanese chip makers were not expected to be tempted to return to the sector by the recovery in the DRAM industry. ``They have missed the opportunity because they haven't made investment. So it's a big opportunity for the Koreans and Micron (NYSE:MU - news),' Morgan said. Industry analysts have said the world DRAM market would largely be dominated by four to five makers, including Samsung, Micron Technology Inc, NEC Corp , Toshiba Corp and possibly Hyundai Electronics Industries Co . Morgan is in Seoul as part of a trip to the region which will take him to Taipei on Thursday. (Above is an excerpts from Yahoo-Interview-Applied Matl.)

To: Victor who wrote (1441)	9/15/1999 7:16:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7825

Victor, could the other be Schroder & Co., Inc. Bradley L. Mook ? Me, I never heard of him. quicken.multexinvestor.com Gottfried

To: Victor who wrote (1441)	9/16/1999 12:29:00 AM
From: KLINVESTOR	Respond to of 7825

Victor, Its good to hear that you are sending your analysis to the various industry analysts for semi-equips. Not to over push the point but it would be good to send it to the company Board of Directors which includes the President and in addition a separate copy John Allen the CFO would be good. I wouldn't be surprised if those responsible for IR also scan the message boards as I have noted in discussions with other companies in the past that they virtually all keep tabs on what is being said on these message boards. Good luck.