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To: Bocor who wrote (9045)	12/22/2000 1:46:49 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9582

UMC (2303) closed @ 44.70 +0.90 vol 123,615,684 +++++++++ Dec 21 net purchase 1,801,000 shares +++++++++++++ TAIWAN WEIGHTED closed @ 4811.22 -6.00 (-0.12%) Day's Range :4728.41 - 4888.35 ++++++++ Semiconductor maker United Microelectronics is expected to discuss whether it should use NT$20 billion to support its own share price during a board meeting Friday, reports the Economic Daily. The company said after a board meeting today that it plans to buy back 400 million shares.

To: Bocor who wrote (9045)	12/22/2000 7:13:22 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9582

alsc will make 22 cents this quarter like the Sep Q. That is only 4 cents lower that analyst estimate. I think the stock price FULLY priced this shortfall and even worse. also "We believe that the SRAM yield problems have now been fixed and the overall SRAM product booking activity remains good.'' The lower DRAM pricing is a known problem and the inventory situation should be corrected by next quarter. +++++++++++++ Asia DRAM Report: Prices Offer No Reason To Celebrate By J.R. Wu Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TAIPEI (Dow Jones)--As holiday-makers pass the bubbly during the last week of the year, they're passing up purchases on dynamic random access memory chips, leaving prices to languish near below cost levels. "The situation is pretty serious. There's no buyers. People are going on holiday in the U.S. and Europe, so no one wants any pile up on inventories," says a sales official at a Taiwanese DRAM maker. Spot prices for the standard 64-megabit DRAM hovers around US$2.80-US$2.70 per chip and some analysts say there's possibly 37% more downside for the commodity used primarily in personal computers. "DRAM (prices) may still fall under US$2.50, but I wouldn't want to predict anything below that because most companies are already losing money under US$3.00," the sales official says. DRAM makers approach their cost level at around US$3.50 a chip, which is some 60% below highs hit in July. Spot prices for DRAMs have fallen sharply in recent months after expected strong demand for PCs failed to materialize and companies were left with bloated inventories. This week China Development Industrial Bank (2804.TW), Taiwan's largest venture capital firm, forecasted a 64-megabit DRAM chip could fall close to producers' variable cost between US$2.00-US$1.70 in the near term if companies continue to dump inventories. Possible Lows Under US$2/Chip Only Temporary The good news is that those lows won't be sustainable, especially as the horde of bears looming over the slowing PC industry prove the classic contrarian market theory. "If everybody is quite bearish, the cost of being wrong is very low," says Milton Huang, chip analyst at National Securities in Taipei, who believes it's "really very, very safe to buy DRAM shares in the first half of next year." Indeed, Huang forecasts the average spot price in the Asian DRAM spot market next year should top US$3.30 per chip in the second quarter and further rise to US$4.50 in the third quarter. To be sure, those forecasts are a far cry from highs near US$9 per chip five months ago, but unexpected slack demand for PCs and a global economic slowdown affecting the volatile, boom-to-bust nature of the DRAM market are forcing a readjustment of expectations. Inventory levels for channel distributors are down to zero, while system makers have cut their levels by half in the past month to around 2-3 weeks worth of goods, says Rick Hsu, DRAM analyst at Nomura Securities in Taipei. Players are "extremely cautious" and "we do not see any positive trigger from the demand side" in the near term, Hsu says, who forecasts the average spot price for a 64-megabit DRAM to hit US$2.40, US$3.10 and US$3.60 in each of the respective three quarters beginning April 2001. But Hsu estimates if investors stock up on shares in some DRAM companies now, they'd probably enjoy a 20% to 40% upside by the end of first quarter 2001 due to an anticipated, but brief, technical rebound in the price of a DRAM chip. Huang points out bolstering the small recovery in the DRAM market next year is the expected 6% reduction in capacity schedules among Taiwan's DRAM makers, who make up one of Asia's largest spot markets for DRAM. Though growth from the desktop PC, which should account for 58% of the sales distribution of DRAMs this year, remains at best moderate in 2001, Huang says, the greater growth potential in other electronic appliances such as game consoles and notebook PCs should underpin support for the DRAM industry in the longer term. Demand for DRAMs from advanced game machines, including those launched by Nintendo and Sony, should register a 144% on-year growth in 2001, says Huang. Total DRAM consumption by game consoles next year should hit 809.5 million megabytes and increase to 1.5 billion megabytes in 2002. Meanwhile, global notebook demand, which is widely seen rising because lower component costs, should total 27.5 million units in 2001, for a 21% annual gain, and hit 32.3 million units by 2002, says Huang.