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Technology Stocks : Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates -- VSEA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob D who wrote (568)	3/16/2000 5:50:00 AM
From: Bob D	Respond to of 1929

Here's another one. SEAJ: Equipment Sales Continue to Rise By Jeff Dorsch Senior Editor semiconbay.com (03/15/00, 12:10 p.m. PST) The Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) reported that worldwide sales of capital equipment by its members rose 111 percent to $834.4 million in January, the seventh straight month that sales have been up compared with the year before. The worldwide recovery in capital equipment sales took longer to reach Japan, finally taking hold in mid-1999. North American equipment vendors saw sales start to come back beginning in October 1998. Comparing cumulative totals for the April-to-January period, the SEAJ said sales were up 30.8 percent year-over-year. Wafer processing equipment, the largest category in the monthly SEAJ figures, showed a 28 percent gain in the cumulative April-to-January numbers, to $540.76 million. Inspection equipment posted a 46.9 percent increase, to $178.88 million, while assembly equipment grew 38.5 percent to $85.15 million. Mask/reticle manufacturing equipment was off 3.4 percent to $5.44 million, and wafer manufacturing equipment was up 45.6 percent to $5.77 million. "Related equipment" was down 17 percent to $18.41 million. Dollar figures were reported at the exchange rate of approximately 105 yen to the dollar. Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International's monthly book-to-bill figure, which reflects orders and sales by North American equipment vendors, has been above parity for more than a year. SEMI is scheduled to report the February 2000 figures on Monday, March 20. For January 2000, the SEMI book-to-bill ratio was a surprising 1.34, indicating renewed vigor in the capital equipment upturn. The three-month average of shipments in January was $1.62 billion, while bookings came to $2.18 billion. Those figures are subject to revision in succeeding months. Silicon foundries have been leading buyers of capital equipment in recent months. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) now estimates it may spend nearly $5 billion on capital expenditures this year, which is about as much as the company's annual revenues. Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., a foundry under construction in Kulim, Malaysia, this month reported ordering $550 million in capital equipment, including lithography equipment from ASM Lithography Holding NV (ASML). Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. last month broke ground on its Fab 7 project in Singapore, a $2.1 billion "megafab" that will initially use 200-millimeter (eight-inch) wafers before making the transition to 300mm (12-inch) wafers. Intel Corp. last month broke ground on Fab 22, a $2 billion project in Chandler, Ariz. that will similarly follow a 200mm-to-300mm transition. Intel has publicly set its capital spending budget for 2000 at $5 billion, with more than $4 billion expected to be dedicated to chip-making operations. Hitachi Ltd., one of Japan's biggest chipmakers, recently boosted its semiconductor capital spending budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2000, to 150 billion yen (about $1.425 billion), up from 130 billion yen (about $1.235 billion). Hitachi has a joint venture with United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) of Taiwan, the world's second largest silicon foundry after TSMC, to start a 300mm fab line in a Hitachi facility in Japan.

To: Bob D who wrote (568)	3/16/2000 8:52:00 AM
From: dantecristo	Respond to of 1929

Bob D. - That's such a good idea! Maybe you should suggest that to the novice CEO of VSEA. Do you think he could spare some of that nearly $12 million to buy back VSEA? Or do you think he needs it for some other things: -VSEA Director Felch's video camera budget? -relocating Safeway to Los Altos Hills, CA where the Aurelio's and Felch's live? -budget increase in his looooong commute now that gas prices are high? -or maybe it's just the price of the frivolous Varian SLAPP lawsuit has gotten pretty outrageous? Duker, Brian, Sherman?