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

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/2/2000 4:08:23 PM
From: dantecristo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1929

Didn't Aurelio, Sullivan & Athole sell over $60? Geez, that $38 today don't look so good, does it? Don't you wish you knew what they knew? eh froggy? Duker? Brian? Demo?

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/2/2000 8:40:51 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1929

Yet another thing which should help VSEA make us more money. Aurelio for President! IC Industry Cheers Sharply Increasing Orders from Japan October 2, 2000 (TAIPEI) -- Leading Japanese companies in the information industry will sharply increase their outsourcing orders by the end of the year. According to the report, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and NEC Corp. are expected to double their orders to their contract manufacturers, significantly benefiting Taiwan's IC manufacturers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Winbond Electronics Corp. As a result, these companies will be working at full capacity until 2002. Leading Japanese chipmakers Hitachi and Toshiba recently announced that they would increase the proportion of their outsourcing orders with the aim of avoiding any risk caused by increasing capital investment. Taiwan's IC manufacturers welcomed the good news, which should result in the upgrading of their production through technology transfer from these chip-manufacturing leaders. Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Fujitsu will be the major sources for DRAM orders, benefiting particularly Winbond Electronics and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. Texas Instruments Japan Ltd., NEC and Hitachi intend to place their contract manufacturing orders of LCD driver with TSMC, Analog Technology Inc. and Episil Semiconductor Inc. In addition, Macronix International Corp. is understood to have received Mitsubishi's orders for flash memory, while UMC and TSMC have won logic IC orders from Hitachi and NEC, respectively. The small profit margins of such contract manufacturing orders may not financially benefit the companies much, but the business keeps their production lines working without wasted capacity. Taiwan's IC manufacturers are trying hard to avoid the worsening prospects for their industry by trying to find more order sources. After the cancellation of an order for communication IC by Motorola Inc., TSMC made up for its lost production by successfully winning orders for logic IC and LCD drivers. TSMC revealed that in the short-term it would not be able to digest any more orders, as its third, fourth and fifth plants had no production capacity available. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/3/2000 10:32:35 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1929

This should help VSEA. Aurelio for President!!!!!!!!!! Chip sales hit a high mark in August By Melanie Austria Farmer Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 3, 2000, 7:05 a.m. PT update Fueled by strong demand for Internet and wireless equipment, worldwide semiconductor sales grew 53 percent and hit an industry high for the month of August, according to a new report. Chip sales during August reached $18.2 billion, a jump from $11.9 billion in the same period a year ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said in a report released today. The association found that sales rose in all major geographical regions. The Asia-Pacific market grew 60 percent and the Japan market grew 54 percent from the year-ago period. Chip sales in the Americas showed a 50 percent increase, while European sales jumped 46 percent. A number of market watchers have said that sales of PCs and wireless devices will continue to rise, fueling demand for the chips used to run them. Research firm Cahners In-Stat Group in August said semiconductor sales will total $316 billion in 2004, up from about $210 billion in 2000. Meanwhile, chip giant Intel recently took a beating on Wall Street after the company warned that third-quarter revenue would be lower than anticipated because of weaker demand in Europe. The chipmaker said revenue for the third quarter is likely to be only 3 percent to 5 percent higher than second-quarter revenue of $8.3 billion. Intel's blues, however, did not resonate throughout the industry. Following its earnings warning and stock fallout, a string of PC makers including Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Compaq Computer sounded off with positive growth outlooks and declarations that business is healthy. Rival Advanced Micro Devices said it remains on track toward its goal of shipping 3.6 million of its Athlon and Duron processors, twice as many chips as it shipped the prior quarter. The SIA, whose report represents a three-month moving average of sales activity, said the industry is on track to reach forecasts of 31 percent growth for 2000. The SIA report is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization, which embodies some 70 companies. The SIA said that 2000 is a "remarkable" year for semiconductors and that the industry will continue to see strong growth for chips used in consumer, Internet and communications products.

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/3/2000 5:01:21 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 1929

Yet more good news for VSEA; but it's only good news if you have a vested interest. FSA raises wafer demand forecast for 2000 and 2001, but can foundries keep up? Semiconductor Business News (10/03/00, 04:32:52 PM EDT) SAN JOSE - The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) here today raised its forecast for silicon wafer demand for both 2001 and 2002, but analysts wonder if there is enough worldwide foundry capacity to meet this surge in business. Citing strong growth in the communications and other sectors, fabless-IC companies in total are projected to consume 54% more wafers in 2000 than in 1999, according to the FSA's new mid-year forecast released today. In early projections, the FSA predicted that fabless-IC companies in total would consume 39% more silicon wafers in 2000 over last year. The FSA also raised its wafer-demand forecast in 2001. Originally, the FSA projected that fabless-chip companies would consume 42% more wafers in 2001 than in 2000. But now, the trade organization projects that fabless-chip makers will consume 55% more wafers next year than in 2000. "Growth for the fabless segment has not eased this year and we have no expectations of a slow down in 2001," stated Jodi Shelton, executive director of the FSA. "The FSA's biggest concern is that a wafer capacity shortage could stagnate this growth and, consequently, innovations," Shelton said. "Therefore, we continue to encourage the development of new foundry start-ups and expansions by existing foundry partners to support the capacity requirements of this business model." Analysts agreed. "The overall semiconductor industry is expected to grow close to 35% this year over 1999 and the fabless companies will continue to grow faster," said Mark Edelstone, who tracks the industry for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in San Francisco. "The driver for fabless company growth in the second half of 2000 is seasonally strong PC and consumer electronics demand combined with the ongoing strength in the wireless and data communications markets," he said. "However, capacity constraints will remain in force and fabless semiconductor companies will need to plan ahead in order to ensure a steady supply of wafer capacity in the second half of the year."

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/4/2000 4:05:17 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 1929

Still MORE great news for VSEA shareholders: TI to pour more money into chipmaking plants By Bloomberg News October 4, 2000, 12:00 p.m. PT TOKYO--Texas Instruments plans to invest $2.8 billion to $3 billion in plants and equipment next year to boost the output of chips for mobile phones, according to reports. The Nihon Keizai newspaper cited comments from TI chief executive Thomas Engibous in an interview in Tokyo. The chipmaker, which plans to invest $2.8 billion on plant and equipment upgrades this year, will spend more money next year on several projects. These include plans to build a production line to handle larger wafers at a Dallas plant and to invest about $300 million in plants in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo, and Oita prefecture in Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, according to Engibous. The Dallas-based company will boost production of mobile phone processors and analog microchips because it expects demand for cellular phones to expand next year, when so-called next-generation mobile phones offering high-speed Internet access will be introduced, the newspaper said. Texas Instruments, whose chips power two-thirds of the world's mobile phones, last month scaled back its forecast for industry-wide handset sales this year from 435 million worldwide to between 400 million and 435 million. Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.

To: Demosthenes who wrote (959)	10/9/2000 1:54:09 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1929

MORE great news for VSEA....and I will say it one more time: Aurelio for President! Modest chip downturn won't hit until '03, says Dataquest forecast Semiconductor Business News (10/09/00, 11:19:33 AM EDT) SAN JOSE -- Despite some concerns about the chip industry over investing in production capacity, Dataquest Inc. today predicted that semiconductor suppliers will have two more years of solid growth before a modest downturn hits in 2003. The market research firm here released a new forecast showing worldwide chip sales increasing 37% to $231.6 billion in 2000, followed by growth of 27.5% to $295.2 billion in 2001 and 13.9% to $336.2 billion in 2002. But in 2003 chip sales will drop 4.5% to $320.9 billion, said Dataquest. "It has taken the industry five years to return to the strong revenue growth achieved in 1995, when the industry grew almost 38%," said Mary Olsson, a principal analyst in Dataquest's semiconductor group in San Jose. "Yet, despite the growth resemblance between 1995 and 2000, we do not believe 2001 will be a year of changing business conditions as it was in 1996. "Barring any major economic downturn or earth-shaking disaster, the industry in 2002 is forecast to reach low double-digit growth, with a moderate but cyclical downturn in the forecast for 2003. A return to moderate growth is expected in 2004," she added. Semiconductor revenues are expected to grow 5.8% in 2004 to $339.5 billion, said Dataquest. In 2000, every semiconductor category is expected to finish this year with "strong double-digit growth," according to Dataquest, which plans to release more details about its new forecast during an annual chip conference in San Diego, Oct. 30-31. Dataquest said the memory segment is showing the strongest growth in 2000, with sales on a pace to increase by more than 60% over 1999. DRAM revenue is forecast to increase 58% to $37 billion in 2000 over 1999 revenues, said the research firm. "The industry is running at high capacity with reports of shortages and tight capacity for flash, microprocessors and some DRAM architectures," said Mark Giudici, a principal analyst for semiconductors at Dataquest. "Near-term spot pricing is reacting to inventory building and should not be confused with the overall industry supply/demand picture. Stronger demand and some product allocation in late 2000 will result in higher prices for DRAM, flash and some SRAM densities has forced lead times out beyond 20 weeks." Dataquest said flash memory suppliers report strong bit growth and new design wins, which will prices high through 2001. Flash capacity is expected to remain tight through 2001 until new plants come on stream late neat year, said Dataquest analysts. "Demand for flash architectures has spread across all application segments," Olsson noted. "The biggest consumer of flash, cellular handsets, typically uses 2 megabytes, but densities will increase as next-generation infrastructure is increasingly deployed."