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

To: FJB who wrote (50237)	8/7/2001 8:35:41 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Silicon Wafer Demand Slips 21 Percent SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Worldwide shipments of silicon wafers, the discs on which integrated circuits are built, tumbled 21 percent in the second quarter as suppliers shut down plants and cut workers, a trade group said on Monday. Shipments of wafers totaled 988 million square inches in the second quarter, down from the 1.25 billion square inches shipped in the first quarter of 2001, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International said. Compared to the second quarter of last year, shipments were down 28 percent. The trade group said a cutback in production and capital investment by wafer makers threatened the industry's ability to meet demand for next-generation wafers that are larger than those in use today. These new wafers, which are 300 millimeters in diameter -- or about the size of a dinner plate -- can be cut into many more individual microchips than the 200-millimeter wafers currently in use. Sluggish sales of computers and other electronics this year have taken a toll on chip makers, which in turn have cut back on capital spending. Makers of chip-making equipment, such as Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT - news), have seen sales drop drastically from a year ago.