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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (189)	10/31/2001 10:51:36 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Japan PC Shipments Heading for Drop This Year By Reed Stevenson TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's domestic personal computer shipments are set to drop 12 percent in the current business year to next March after consumer and corporate buying shrank in the second quarter, an industry group said on Wednesday. PC shipments are expected to total 10.6 million units for the 2001/02 business year, down from last year's record shipment of 12.1 million units, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) said. ``We thought that PC sales would be immune from a downturn in economic conditions, but that was not the case,'' said Masatsugu Shinozaki, a Hitachi Ltd (6501.T) executive on the association's PC industry committee. Previously, JEITA had forecast a rise in 2001/02 of 12 percent to 13.6 million PCs. The revised outlook comes after Japan's major semiconductor and computer makers such as NEC Corp (6701.T) and Toshiba Corp (6502.T) reported bruising first half results, hit by a global chill in demand for information technology. Underscoring the speed of the downturn, Japan's domestic PC shipments fell 21 percent from a year earlier to 2.27 million units in the July-September quarter, just two periods after rising to their highest level ever. Total second-quarter shipments, including exports, were down 22 percent on the year at 2.44 million units. PC prices have been showing steady declines, with the average portable, or laptop computer, costing 167,000 yen ($1,368) compared to 211,000 yen a year earlier. JEITA said average server and desktop PC prices in July-September were 154,000 yen. FEW POSITIVE FACTORS If the new outlook for the year is realized, it would be the first fall since a five percent contraction in 1997/98, another JEITA official said. It would take a while for any positive effect from the introduction of Microsoft Corp's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) newest PC operating system, Windows XP (news - web sites), to appear in PC shipments data, JEITA said. The Japanese edition of Windows XP will go on sale on November 16, but sales of PCs already loaded with the system, a better indicator of hardware sales, have already begun. Another factor behind the downturn and weaker outlook is the increasing inroad that foreign PC manufacturers are making in Japan's market, the world's second largest. JEITA's 17 members firms represent more than 90 percent of domestic PC shipments, but U.S. PC manufacturers such as Dell Computer Corp (Nasdaq:DELL - news) and Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news) are not included in the association's tally. According to market research firm Multimedia Research Institute Ltd, Dell managed to improve its standing in the first half to sixth place from the number 10 spot, boosted by corporate sales. U.S. competitor Gateway Inc (NYSE:GTW - news), however, decided to cut its losses and pull out of Japan and Asia at the end of August. For the first half, domestic PC shipments shrank 10 percent year-on-year to 5.07 million units, JEITA said. In value terms, JEITA's member firms shipped 447 billion yen worth of PCs in the second quarter, down 32 percent from a year earlier, and just over one trillion yen worth of PCs for the April-September first half, down 20 percent.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (189)	10/31/2001 11:43:20 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Taiwan's DRAM makers lose $1.23 billion this year By Faith Hung EBN (10/31/01 11:31 a.m. EST) HSINCHU, Taiwan -- All of Taiwan's DRAM manufacturers suffered losses in the third quarter as a global downturn diminished demand and eroded prices. For the first 9 months of this year, Taiwan's six DRAM companies have lost a combined $1.23 billion, according to reports from the companies. Among them, Mosel Vitelic Inc., which has a joint venture with Infineon Technologies AG, was the hardest hit, losing $179.5 million in the three months to September. Nanya Technology Corp., which licenses technologies from IBM Corp., lost $109.6 million. Those companies, along with rivals in the U.S. and South Korea, have been struggling to keep their head above water after prices of the standard 128 MB DRAM plunged to record lows and dropped below their production cost. With the product prices hovering below $1 per chip in the coming months, Taiwan's players are likely to experience a tougher situation, some analysts said. “We don't expect to see any signs of rebound until the second half of next year,” said Connor Liu, a research vice president with SG Securities in Taipei. “A balance in demand and supply could only be possible a year from now.” Despite the huge losses, Taiwan DRAM makers should be able to survive through this downturn due to their cash positions or small debts, analysts said. That puts them in a less unfavorable situation than Hynix Semiconductor Co., which last week posted an unprecedented $1.25 billion net loss for the September quarter. For months, Hynix has been in negotiations with creditors to restructure its $6.5 billion in existing debt and to obtain $750 million in new loans. “The worldwide DRAM market is sluggish, but we're still optimistic about the future,” said president Chen Ming-liang of ProMos Technologies Inc., which lost $55.3 million in the third quarter. The company, a venture between Infineon and Mosel, next year is planning to concentrate on the production of 256 MB DRAM on 0.14-micron process technology. In the three months to September, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. and Vanguard International Semiconductor Co. lost $114.3 million and $77.6 million, respectively. Winbond Electronics Corp., the island's largest DRAM maker and currently a supplier to Toshiba Corp., reported $114.6 million in losses. Winbond is hoping to save $58 million in 2002 by shutting down a 5-inch wafer fab, cutting executive pays and shedding jobs. In the year's first three quarters, Taiwan's six DRAM companies lost $1.23 billion combined: Mosel $434.8 million, Nanya $217.4 million, Winbond $188.4 million, Vanguard $142 million, Powerchip $139.1 million and ProMos $110.1 million.