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

To: Fred Levine who wrote (2819)	9/2/2002 3:24:39 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Wafers moving ahead By Chris Edwards EE Times (09/02/02 04:46 a.m. EST) Wafer shipments in the second quarter of 2002 surpassed those of the same period in 2001, according to the latest figures from Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics.Measured in 200mm equivalent wafers, MOS and bipolar shipments rose sharply from 880 000 in Q1 this year to 1.06 million wafer starts a week, as capacity utilisation overall climbed nine percentage points to 86.4%. Total fab capacity has reached 1.28 million wafer starts a week, less than 41 000 wafer starts behind the mid-2001 peak. With a number of 300mm fabs being fitted out to go online by the end of the year, the capacity peak could be surpassed within two quarters. Despite a 9% increase in sub-0.2µm capacity to 416 000 wafer starts a week, the available lines for advanced technology nodes are all but sold out. Utilisation rose from 90.6% in Q1 to 93.4%, and sub-0.2µm shipments accounted for close to 38% of total wafers shipped and 35% of total capacity. Other process nodes saw utilisation climb back above the 80% mark, except for the 0.3 and 0.35µm technologies, which after a year of capacity pruning to just 152 000 wafer starts a week from 289 000 the year before, saw utilisation finally climb from the 60% region to 78.3%. Expansion at foundries was responsible for about 20 000 wafer starts a week of the additional capacity, almost all of it concentrated on the sub 0.2µm processes. There utilisation rose from 63% in Q1 to 78.3% in Q2. fred