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To: Duker who wrote (3705)	12/1/1999 9:41:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Chip equipment boom about to start, says SEMI survey Semiconductor Business News (12/01/99, 08:16:05 AM EDT) CHIBA, Japan--Semiconductor equipment suppliers are ending this year feeling upbeat about the prospects for strong growth in capital spending by chip makers after being beat up badly by last year's recession. A new survey of suppliers shows respondents expecting worldwide equipment sales to grow 18.3% to $27.7 billion in 2000 from $23.4 billion this year. "The year-end survey shows that our industry expects to begin the new century with a solid upturn," declared Stanley Myers, president of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group, which released the survey results at its Semicon Japan trade show today. The Silicon Valley-based trade group polls its members for a consensus forecast twice a year. The year-end survey shows optimism nearly unchanged since last summer. The survey predicts semiconductor equipment revenues to grow 20.3% in 2001 and 14.3% in 2002. For wafer processing equipment, SEMI's year-end survey shows revenues growing 18.7% to $17.9 billion in 2000 from $15.1 billion in 1999. Assembly and packaging equipment sales are expected to increase 12.4% to $2.1 billion from $1.8 billion in 1999, according to the survey. Test equipment revenues are expected to rise 18.6% to$5.6 billion in 2000 from $4.7 billion in 1999. The new SEMI consensus forecast is a little less bullish about next year's growth than other forecasts by market researchers. For example, Dataquest in San Jose predicts wafer fab equipment sales will surge 26% to $19.0 billion next year from $15.1 billion in 1999. In 2001, fab equipment sales are expected to jump 47% to $27.9 billion followed by a 19% increase to $33.3 billion in 2002, according to analyst Clark J. Fuhs, director of Dataquest's Semiconductor Manufacturing Analysis unit. But nearly everyone seems certain that 2000 will mark the beginning of the next growth cycle for capital spending after investments nearly dried up in 1998. Fab equipment spending fell 28% last year to $14.6 billion in 1998, according to Dataquest. "Reports of new orders and shipments are already showing signs of renewed growth in the industry," said SEMI's Myers, "and the prospects for accelerated growth in 2000 seem promising. With the continued expansion of Internet-related technologies and increasing demand for semiconductors in new electronics, semiconductor equipment and materials companies stand well-poised to benefit as chip manufacturers ramp-up production," he added.