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

To: Tony Viola who wrote (36835)	8/17/2000 8:58:45 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Motorola Cancels Orders to Wafer Foundry Manufacturers August 17, 2000 (TAIPEI) -- Motorola Inc. significantly decreased its orders to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. due to softer demand for mobile phones. Several market watchers predicted that the mobile phone market would remain weak for more than one year, effecting a change in the production of worldwide semiconductor manufacturers. Motorola announced in early August that its mobile phone output would be lower than its previous expectation of 100 million units, at 80 million to 85 million units in 2000. Nokia's prediction of mobile phone shipments for the third quarter also disappointed observers. While several institutions saw clouds on the horizon, semiconductor manufacturers also became pessimistic about the mobile phone market. They predicted that global shipments of mobile phones would decline by around 50 million units this year, from the previous projection of 400 million to 450 million units. To respond to the sharply shrinking mobile phone demand, Motorola was forced to cancel its pre-ordered wafer foundry production at TSMC and CSM, and significantly decrease its mobile phone contract manufacturing orders for the same time period. Motorola's retreat was confirmed, but watered down, by TSMC's vice general manager, Long Na-te. Long is unwilling to accept the widely pessimistic view in the market. TSMC's orders, which have exceeded its production capacity, are expected to take long to digest. Moreover, its orders of ICs for mobile phones are light in the order book. However, the market watchers will not hold the same optimism about CSM because of its relatively close relationship with Motorola. CSM said it would work at full capacity to meet the orders of communication-related products, and strengthen its cooperation with Motorola. According to market analysts, the depression in the mobile phone market will have limited impact on Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturers for the time being, given that the electronics industry's traditional peak season will make up for the order reductions. However, the sufferings of leading global communication components providers, including Texas Instruments (TI), ADI, Intel and Samsung, may lead to a big change in the local semiconductor manufacturing industry in the future. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)