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Technology Stocks : ADI: The SHARCs are circling! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Oravetz who wrote (1743)	5/31/2000 12:47:00 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Respond to of 2882

WaferTech article (ADI part owner): CAMAS, Wash. -- In response to heightened demand for silicon wafers, WaferTech plans to hire as many as 300 more workers this year, boost production and eventually contemplate construction of a second foundry in Camas, WaferTech President Steve Tso said Thursday. Building another foundry would require a minimum of $2 billion in new investment, Tso said. About $1.5 billion has been invested in the existing foundry. Tso spoke to reporters at an informal meeting, his first public comments since going to work in April. He is the company's second president. Demand for silicon wafers is spiking as a result of the exploding popularity of such hand-held devices as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants, Tso said. "We all expect 10 good years of semiconductor business because this time the wave is not PCs; it is connectivity, it is mobile devices, phones and PDAs," he said. He noted that demand for wafers is expected to increase 39 percent this year and an additional 48 percent in 2001. The company's current, 1-million-square-foot plant makes 20,000 silicon wafers a month. It will ramp up production to 30,000 wafers a month by the end of the year and 40,000 toward the end of 2001. WaferTech employs about 1,000 workers, plans to add 250 to 300 workers by the end of the year and "will continue to grow," Tso said. The aggressive plan comes just as WaferTech has become profitable for the first time since it began commercial production in mid-1998. April marked the first month the plant has been profitable, and "as we look at May, June, July, we are very confident profit-wise," Tso said. Still, WaferTech's performance lags compared with wafer foundries owned by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. elsewhere, he said. Taiwan Semiconductor holds a 67.56 percent stake in WaferTech. The two companies are part of an industry called foundry services. They serve as a factory-for-hire for chip companies that don't want to own and operate their own plants. Other WaferTech owners include Altera of San Jose, Calif.; Analog Devices of Norwood, Mass.; and Integrated Silicon Solution of Santa Clara, Calif. snip..... oregonlive.com Jim