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

To: StanX Long who wrote (64051)	5/27/2002 10:05:57 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

NOte the Bold, Stan . Heard on the Beat (May 24) Semiconductor Business News (05/24/02 18:27 p.m. EST) siliconstrategies.com Nikon tops lithography, says this report Which company was the world's largest supplier of lithography exposure tools in 2001? Answer: It depends on which market research house is doing the estimating. In fact, the market share numbers in the lithography-tool business are all over the map. And depending on the spin from researcher, any one of the "Big Three" tool suppliers--ASML Holding N.V., Canon Inc., and Nikon Corp.--could be the market share leader in the business. But according to new figures from VLSI Research Inc., it appears that the "Big Three" all experienced a tough year in 2001 due to severe IC downturn. Japan's Nikon retained its position as the world's largest tool supplier in terms of worldwide revenues and market share in 2001, according to VLSI Research's estimates. Nikon had 40% market share in 2001, followed by ASML with 25%, and Canon with 20%, according to the estimates. Nikon's lithography-tool shipments for chip production only (excluding other applications) totaled $1.35 billion in 2001, down 34.7% from $2.07 billion in 2000, said San Jose-based VLSI Research. ASML of the Netherlands remained in second place, said the research firm. Its tool shipments for chip production were $1.04 billion in 2001, down 44.9% from 2000, according to VLSI. Japan's Canon was in third place, as its tool sales were $855 million in 2001, down 14.5% from about $1 billion in 2000, VLSI said.--M.L. Chartered renegotiates loans to accelerate Fab 6 ramp With silicon foundry demand recovering from last year's low point in the downturn, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. has reached a preliminary agreement with financial backers to rework loans for its Fab 6 plant so that investments can be accelerated in the joint-venture facility. The 200-mm Fab 6 plant has been the home of a joint-venture company, called Chartered Silicon Partners (CSP), which is majority owned by Chartered. Last fall, Agilent Technologies Inc. reached an agreement with Chartered to sell one half of its 30% share in the CSP venture because it did not need the capacity (see Oct. 22 story). Now Chartered is aiming to use CSP to increase leading-edge process capacity. But the Singapore foundry company has two loans for CSP's capital expenditures and reserves that require declining total debt-to-net worth ratios.