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

To: Jerome who wrote (3055)	9/17/2002 6:36:31 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

TAIWAN SET TO BENEFIT FROM IMPROVING SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Filed: Monday, September 16, 2002 10:51 PM EST TAIPEI, Sep 17, 2002 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- While consumer confidence remains low, the global semiconductor industry is gradually recovering, and Taiwan should benefit due to its expertise in nanotechnology, an industry source said. David N. K. Wang, executive vice president of the United States-based Applied Materials, the world's leading supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, made the remarks on Monday at the opening of the SEMICON Taiwan 2002 show at the World Trade Center, which will run through to Wednesday. Citing a number of statistics and indexes such as capacity utilization rates and output amounts, Wang said the international semiconductor industry is bottoming out from its latest low in November last year, when its business volume dropped 40 per cent compared to the same month in 2000. Yet the gap has narrowed since the beginning of this year, with July posting eight per cent growth on a year-to-year basis, he noted, adding that this was an indication that the world market was on the road to recovery. According to Wang, the world semiconductor industry peaked in October 2000, with this year's January production reaching 22.1 billion units, accounting for only two-thirds of the highest production level. However, he added, the situation has improved, with July sales hitting around 29.7 billion units, accounting for 89 per cent of the peak production level. At the same time, the world semiconductor plant capacity utilization rate averaged 86 per cent for the second quarter of this year, up from the 64 per cent posted in the third quarter of last year, he said. Global spending on semiconductor manufacturing facilities totaled US$8.717 billion in the first half of this year, down by 52.4 per cent compared with the same period of 2001, he said, but adding that in June alone, worldwide orders for production equipment jumped by 142 per cent from the lowest amount posted in November 2001. All these factors, Wang said, are indications that the international semiconductor sector is undergoing a "positive but not aggressive recovery." He also predicted that Taiwan will benefit from the situation as a result of its development of 12-inch silicon wafer technology.