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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (34611)	3/21/2000 8:10:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Boom times continue for semiconductor equipment companies By Sam Ames Staff Writer, CNET News.com March 21, 2000, 3:05 p.m. PT The boom times are continuing for North American-based makers of semiconductor equipment. A trade organization representing the industry said orders for February increased yet again, as the book-to-bill ratio rose to 1.41 from 1.39 in January. The ratio is the second highest ever, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). A book-to-bill of 1.41 means $141 in orders were received for semiconductor equipment for each $100 worth of products shipped. An increase in the ratio is viewed as a sign of strong demand for semiconductors. The imbalance typically means semiconductor companies are investing in equipment to expand or improve production. The book-to-bill ratio for December 1999 was just 1.19. Often, a surge in semiconductor equipment sales will be followed by a jump in earnings for semiconductor manufacturers nine months later, various analysts have said. Orders placed with manufacturers last month rose to $2.27 billion from $2.23 billion in January. In February of last year, orders amounted to $1.03 billion. Shipments for February, meanwhile, came to $1.6 billion, roughly level with January and December. Shipments for the month represent a 90 percent increase from the $845 million in shipments reported in Feb. 1999. "Business is extremely strong and has apparently reached the capacity for the industry because shipment figures have not gone anywhere in the past few months," said Dick Greene, an analyst for SEMI. "Companies cannot ship as much as they'd like." Despite the good news, the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell $12.94 to $1,190.51 today. Chip manufacturing is a notoriously cyclical industry. Companies often have to lay off workers and shut down plants when mired in a slump. When business improves, these companies have to scramble to hire employees, buy equipment and reopen facilities to keep up with orders. The cycle affects both equipment makers, such as Applied Materials, as well as chip manufacturers, such as TSMC. "If someone told them in the spring of 1999 that demand was going to be this strong, they would have made different business decisions," said Greene. Greene said Asian-based chip companies are being particularly aggressive about expanding. Most companies typically invest 18 to 20 percent of semiconductor production revenue into capital expenditures. But some Asian companies are putting 45 percent of their revenue back into the business. "They want a bigger share of the market, and when people want a larger share that tends to create some kind of upheaval at some point," said Greene. "But you can't tell those companies to stop producing so much because they have their own agendas." The outlook for the industry looks favorable, but forecasting for the long term remains tricky. "Things look pretty safe for 2000, but as for 2001, no one can look that far ahead," said Greene.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (34611)	3/22/2000 10:03:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Flash sales will grow 119% to $10 billion in 2000, says researcher (03/22/00, 08:18:46 AM EDT) SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- After growing 83% in 1999, flash memory revenues are expected to more than double to nearly $10 billion in 2000, predicted IC Insights Inc. here. Explosive growth in nonvolatile flash memory shipments is being driven by wireless communications and a range of consumer products, such as digital cameras, MP3 audio players and set-top boxes, said the research firm. Flash memory revenues will grow 119% to $9.97 billion this year compared to $4.56 billion in 1999, said IC Insights. The flash market was $2.49 billion in 1998. The research firm predicts that average selling prices for flash chip will continue to climb in the next three years. ASPs were at $3.74 for flash in 1999, but in 2000, average selling prices will jump to $5.25 partly due to shortages of production capacity. Average selling prices will then climb to $5.25 in 2000, $5.79 in 2001, and $6.04 in 2002 before leveling off in 2003 at $5.93, said IC Insights. Worldwide unit shipments of flash memories will grow 56% to 1.9 billion chips in 2000 from 1.22 billion in 1999, according to the market researcher. In 2001, flash shipments will grow 26% to 2.39 billion devices, predicted IC Insights. Not only will flash become the industry's second largest memory segment in 2000, passing SRAMs and trailing only DRAMs, but it will also account for 21% of the total memory market this year, said the research firm. In 1999, flash accounted for 14% of the memories sold. The research firm noted that cellular phones will consume 430 million flash chips in 2000. In addition, the amount of flash memory in each phone is growing substantially. By 2002, the average cell phones will have 64 megabit of flash vs. just 4 Mbits in 1998.