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

To: StanX Long who wrote (65311)	8/13/2002 11:25:20 PM
From: StanX Long	Respond to of 70976

Powerchip May Narrow Loss as It Moves to More Advanced Chips By Iain Pocock quote.bloomberg.com Taipei, Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., Taiwan's third-largest computer memory-chip maker, may say its second-quarter loss narrowed from a year earlier as the company produced larger silicon wafers that yield a third more chips. The company may report that its fourth loss in five quarters narrowed to NT$534 million ($16 million) from NT$1.26 billion a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of five analysts. Sales fell 4 percent to NT$3.2 billion, the company said earlier. Powerchip is scheduled to post earnings this afternoon. ``Cost structure improved with the more advanced manufacturing process and the production of more unblemished chips per wafer,'' Fubon Securities Co. analyst Orry Lai said. The 300 millimeter wafers, the most advanced in the industry, reduce costs by as much as a third because more chips can be cut from them than from the standard 200 millimeter wafers. Powerchip opened a new plant to manufacture the larger chips in May. Computer shipments have fallen for five quarters, cutting demand for chips and causing prices to fall to less than production cost. Last week, Powerchip slashed its pretax profit forecast for the year by almost 90 percent to NT$578 million. Global semiconductor demand is forecast to rise 2.3 percent this year, after slumping a third last year, World Semiconductor Trade Statistics said in May.