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

To: JSwanson who wrote (492)	11/14/2001 11:17:20 AM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 25522

TOKYO -- World-wide orders for Japanese-made semiconductor manufacturing equipment in September dropped 75.6% from a year earlier to 43.33 billion yen ($356.1 million), for the ninth consecutive month of decline, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said Wednesday. Orders posted their first fall in 23 months in January, and fell 73.5% in August. The weak data show the long-awaited market recovery remains elusive, as September orders represent a 16.9% decline from August and a 20.3% drop from July, the SEAJ said. In the fiscal half to September, total world-wide orders for Japanese-made semiconductor manufacturing equipment dropped 69.4% from the same period a year earlier to 353.40 billion yen, the association said. Hurt by a severe falloff in demand for chips used in personal computers, mobile phone handsets and network-related equipment, global semiconductor makers continue to trim their capital expenditures. Last month, Fujitsu Ltd., one of Japan's five major chip makers, again slashed its chip-related group capital spending plan for this business year to 120 billion yen from 140 billion yen it had forecast in July. The steep on-year decline in orders in September is also attributable to the year-earlier information technology boom, which saw orders peak in value terms in June 2000. The book-to-bill ratio for Japanese-made chip manufacturing equipment was 0.55 in September, compared with 0.62 in August and 0.65 in July, the association said. The ratio, computed as a three-month moving average, dropped below the key level of 1.00 for the eighth consecutive month after failing to top that level in February for the first time in 23 months. A ratio over 1.00 suggests a future increase in sales. In the domestic market, orders for chip-making equipment made by both Japanese and foreign firms in September decreased 73.4% on year to 31.63 billion yen; down 0.2% from August and down 20.8% from July, the industry body said. World-wide sales of Japanese-made semiconductor production equipment declined 45.7% in September from a year ago to 112.92 billion yen, the SEAJ said. This marked a 55.1% increase from August and a 31.3% rise from July. Domestic sales of chip-making equipment made by both Japanese and foreign firms in September fell 42.0% on year to 57.72 billion yen; but were up 51.5% from August, the SEAJ said.