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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (4690)	12/30/2002 8:42:38 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Japan Nov chip equipment orders off 20 pct mth/mth Sunday December 29, 2:59 am ET TOKYO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Orders for Japanese semiconductor equipment slid 20.2 percent in November from October to 55.7 billion yen ($464.4 million) but that was more than double the level seen a year earlier, an industry group said on Sunday. The November orders figure, while up 127.5 percent from a year ago, was also the lowest since February, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. Last November marked the bottom in monthly orders figures for Japan's chip equipment makers during what was the global industry's worst downturn ever. Equipment orders placed in November by Japan's chipmakers, including orders for imported equipment, saw a sharper 52.8 percent slide from October to 24.2 billion yen, although they were up 83.5 percent from a year earlier, the association said. Japan's big chipmakers have sharply curtailed capital spending over the past two years as they struggled with record losses, but Toshiba Corp (Tokyo:6501.T - News), Japan's biggest chipmaker, signalled an end to that restraint by announcing plans this month to build two cutting-edge chip plants over the next four years. Orders for chipmaking equipment have shown sporadic signs of weakness in recent months after a healthy bounce early in the year, prompting analysts to warn that orders had jumped ahead of actual demand for chip-using products such as PCs and cellphones. Toshiba's plans and other signs point to a rebound in orders in the first half of next year, with brisk capital spending by Korean and Japanese chipmakers expected to offset a pullback by the Taiwanese and industry leader Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - News). Tokyo Electron Ltd (Tokyo:8035.T - News), the world's second-largest maker of semiconductor equipment, expects its January-March orders to be even with or better than this quarter, with the possibility of a sharp jump, the company's president, Tetsuro Higashi, said in an interview two weeks ago. Orders tend to precede actual sales by about three to six months or more, depending in part on the type of equipment. November's book-to-bill ratio for Japanese-made equipment edged up to 0.89 from the previous month's 0.88, while the ratio for equipment ordered by Japanese chipmakers slipped to 1.01 from 1.05. A book-to-bill ratio below one indicates that new orders are not keeping pace with past shipments. The book-to-bill ratios are based on three-month moving averages to smooth out fluctuations in the volatile data. ($1=119.92 Yen)