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To: Richard Wang who wrote (469)	12/20/1999 1:24:00 PM
From: tech101	Respond to of 1056

Research Firm Raises Semiconductor Market Forecast By Crista Souza Electronic Buyers' News (12/17/99, 05:54:45 PM EDT) Daily news for semiconductor industry managers PHOENIX ( ChipWire)-- With the semiconductor market making a stronger-than-expected recovery in the second half of 1999, Semico Research Corp. has upped its forecast for 2000 and put DRAM back in the driver's seat for the first time in three years. The Phoenix-based market research firm, which in September had predicted 12% industry growth for 1999, now believes the market will grow 15.9% from last year's $120 billion, to reach $145.5 billion in worldwide semiconductor revenue. Strengthening economies overseas will help accelerate demand for electronic products in 2000, Semico said, pushing chip revenue to $173.7 billion, a 19.4% increase. Unit demand is also stronger than initially projected, growing 14.7% this year, and another 20% in 2000, according to Semico president, Jim Feldhan. Worries about parts shortages have OEMs and contract manufacturers double ordering now, which could have a negative impact in the first quarter, Feldhan said. However, inventory excesses will be balanced out by a post-Y2K build, he said. "Right now, we're looking at a flat first quarter [of 2000]," Feldhan said. "If it is indeed flat, that will be an indication that the market is pretty strong, since the first quarter is normally on the negative side." Most notable in the forecast is the return of DRAM as the semiconductor market driver. A combination of factors, including a generation shift from 64 megabits to 128 and 256 Mbits, increasing Mbytes per system, and stable average selling prices, will drive total memory market growth up 35% this year, and 33.5% in 2000, even though unit sales are expected to decline somewhat. Memory replaces micrologic, which until this year had enjoyed double-digit growth in the range of 17% to 22%. The micrologic segment will slow to a mere 7% growth rate in 2000 as microprocessors and microcontrollers are increasingly integrated into system-on-a-chip devices, Semico said. Meanwhile, the standard-cell logic market, which includes ASICs and SOCs, is also emerging as a market driver, with 34% growth in 1999, and a projected 19% hike next year, according to Semico.

To: Richard Wang who wrote (469)	12/22/1999 2:10:00 AM
From: tech101	Respond to of 1056

John Boruch, Amkor -- IC-packaging guru garnered respect for the industry SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18 1999 1:02 AM EST Dec. 17, 1999 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Colleagues call John Boruch a take-charge guy. In his 15-year career with Amkor Technology Inc., Boruch has surmounted plenty of technology and business challenges to keep the world's largest contract chip assembler on the leading edge. Remaining up to speed with the more than 1,000 different package types now in production is daunting enough. But the president of the West Chester, Pa.-based company faced perhaps his biggest hurdle in the last year-rescuing Korea's Anam Semiconductor Inc., which suffered from the country's currency crisis a few years ago. Anam's four plants provide a major portion of Amkor's packaging requirements. Boruch directed Amkor's purchase of Anam's plants for $1.4 billion, injected much-needed capital into the business, and worked with Korean banks to restructure Anam's massive debt. Anam's front-end fab, once viewed by rivals as an unwarranted expansion in a glutted world market, is now running at full capacity. The executive, who took the helm at Amkor in 1991, spearheaded the company's biggest expansion, which resulted in three plants in the Philippines, a showcase facility in Korea, and Anam's three back-end plants and front-end fab. He has steered Amkor to sidestep the semiconductor industry's price sensitivity by focusing on high-end, higher-margin semiconductor packaging. The strategy attracts a growing number of customers that aren't investing in costly leading-edge assembly and test equipment for an ever-widening mix of complex packages. Boruch has lived and breathed semiconductor packaging his entire career-first at Motorola Inc., the only other company at which he has worked. After cutting his teeth on Motorola's then-emerging ball-grid-array technology, he joined Amkor in 1984 to head worldwide sales. Boruch believes the company is on its way to surpass $2 billion in annual sales in 2000. To help maintain or increase Amkor's 33% share of the global semiconductor-packaging market, the company is boosting its capital spending, which doubled in 1999 to $200 million and is expected to increase roughly 50%, to $300 million, next year. Colleagues credit Boruch for turning around the image that packaging-once considered one of the more mundane segments of the semiconductor industry-"can't get no respect." If he has his way, packaging will maintain that respect. --- John Boruch, Amkor President, Chief Executive Amkor Technology Inc. West Chester, Pa. Age: 56 Previous job: Vice president of worldwide sales at Amkor First job: In planning department of Motorola Inc.'s military semiconductor business Education: B.A. in economics, Cornell University Hobbies/Interests: Running Books currently reading: First Break All The Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman By: Jack Robertson Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc. www2.marketwatch.com

To: Richard Wang who wrote (469)	1/4/2000 11:49:00 AM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1056

Bloomberg News Under Amkor (Jan. 4, 2000) Philippine November Exports Rise 19% From Year Ago (Update1) Philippine November Exports Rise 19% From Year Ago (Update1) (Adds economist comment from third paragraph, breakdown of exports from 10th paragraph.) Manila, Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine exports rose 19 percent in November from a year earlier, as Intel Philippines Corp. and other electronics makers shipped more goods to meet surging demand. Merchandise exports rose to $3.07 billion in the month from $2.58 billion in November 1998, the National Statistics Office said. From October, exports fell 11 percent. The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations. ``The figure isn't alarming. It's in line with forecasts,' after a rapid rise in October, said Kaoru Yuchida, research chief at DBP Daiwa Securities Philippines Inc. Much of the Philippines owes its economic growth to booming worldwide use of the Internet and telecommunications that has sparked demand for computer chips, which account for 75 percent of the country's electronics exports. The government expects the economy expanded 3 percent in 1999 after 0.5 percent growth in 1998. In October, exports surged 36 percent from a year ago, the biggest gain in two and a half years. The surge has been powered by companies such as Intel Corp. and Acer Inc., which expanded factories in the Philippines to meet growing overseas demand for electronics. The Board of Investments, a Philippine agency that distributes incentives to foreign investors, said yesterday Intel was interested in building the nation's first wafer fabrication plant. Intel Investments Intel has invested $500 million in the Philippines during the past 23 years on factories that assemble and package chips -- a less sophisticated manufacturing process than wafer fabrication. Intel today declined to comment on reports it will spend $1 billion in the Philippines to build the plant. Unlike South Korea and Taiwan, where the industry is dominated by local companies, almost all producers in the Philippines are either contract manufacturers or affiliates of the world's major electronics makers. That bodes well for its economy, given the rosy outlook for the global electronics industry. The top electronics exporters in the Philippines include Intel Philippines, Texas Instruments, Amkor Technology Inc., Ionic Circuits Inc., Philippines Associated Smelting and Refining, Integrated Microcircuits, Cebu Mitsumi Inc., Automated Micro-Electronics Inc., Electronic Assemblies and Telefunken Semiconductors, according to the Export Development Council of the Philippines. Chip Exports November shipments of microcircuits and semiconductors rose 16 percent from a year ago to $1.58 billion. That was slower than the 47 percent expansion registered in October from a year ago. Sales of input-output peripheral units -- mainly disk drives -- climbed 55 percent to $276 million. Clothing exports fell 15 percent from a year ago to $164 million. Exports to the U.S., the nation's biggest market, rose 4.7 percent to $834 million in November. Shipments to Taiwan more than doubled to $281 million. For January to November, exports reached $32 billion, a gain of 19 percent from the first 11 months of 1998.