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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Land_Lubber who wrote (50954)	3/22/2000 3:58:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 53903

Micron to boost capital spending by 60% this year, but hedges on equipping empty fabs By Jack Robertson Semiconductor Business News (03/22/00, 09:29:56 AM EDT) BOISE, Idaho -- Micron Technology Inc. will increase its capital spending on semiconductors by 60% to $1.6 billion in its current fiscal year, officials told financial analysts in a conference call late Tuesday. Chairman Steve Appleton said about one-third of the capital expenditure will be used to continue upgrading existing frontend fabs. The Boise chip company disappointed Wall Street on late Tuesday by releasing lower than expected earnings for the fiscal quarter ended March 2. Micron blamed falling memory prices for 53% drop in net income to $161 million in the company's second fiscal quarter compared to the previous three-month period (see March 21 story). During Tuesday's conference call, Appleton told analysts for the first time that Micron has studies underway about when to start equipping its empty fab shells at its large Lehi, Utah, complex. However, he still said no decision has been made yet when to fill out the empty fab buildings. Appleton reiterated that Micron can still increase capacity at its facility in Avezzano, Italy, by about 40%, and by 30% at each of its joint-venture fabs in Singapore and Japan. Appleton said Micron can quickly move to new 300-mm wafer production when it elects to make the transition to the larger wafer size. "We have a shell at Lehi that was designed for 300-mm wafer production, just waiting to be equipped. Some of our competitors that have announced new 300-mm wafer production must build new fabs from the ground up," said Appleton. He expected the industry would move into 300-mm wafer production in the 2002-2003 time period, but dodged questions on when Micron might start its own output. Appleton also felt that DRAM manufacturers that have hung back from adding new production lines may now be hard-pressed to add new capacity quickly because of a severe shortage of equipment. He told analysts that non-memory chip companies have saturated equipment makers with orders. "Anyone trying to order new equipment today must go to the end of the line," the Micron chief said. "If you order any new tools now, you won't get delivery for a year. Essentially, if you hadn't placed orders earlier, you won't be adding any new equipment in 2000." Michael Sadler, Micron's vice president of sales, predicted that global DRAM demand this year will continue at the traditional 80% to 100% bit-growth rate. He estimated that Micron's production mix will be about 50% for PC133 SDRAMs, 10% to 15% for Double Data Rate SDRAMs, 5% to 10% for Direct Rambus and the remainder in PC100 and PC100 and EDO products. He said Micron was enjoying a surprising surge in sales from aging EDO devices, which he said now commanded a premium about $3 above the spot market price for comparable-density SDRAMs. "We will continue to make EDO as long as our customers want them," he added. semibiznews.com