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

To: BWAC who wrote (4844)	1/9/2003 8:17:24 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

UPDATE - TSMC posts weak Dec sales, sluggish Q1 looms Thursday January 9, 5:29 am ET By Michael Kramer (Adds analyst comment, wraps in UMC sales) TAIPEI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - TSMC (Taiwan:2330.TW - News), the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted weaker December revenue figures on Thursday, signalling a sluggish first quarter in the new year. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said December sales slipped nearly four percent from the same month last year to T$11.28 billion, and were down 22.7 percent from November. The firm's closely watched capacity-utilisation rate, which measures capacity versus output, dropped to 61 percent in the fourth quarter from 79 percent in the third quarter, but was slightly above the company's own forecasts of nearly 60 percent. The weak December figures come on the heels of stronger-than-expected October and November sales, and analysts said TSMC's customers may have over-estimated Christmas demand for their products, causing inventory to accumulate down the production stream. "TSMC saw some rush orders before December because their customers thought Christmas sales would be strong," said ING Barings analyst Chris Hsieh. "We see now that Christmas sales were non-existent, so we are sitting on slightly higher inventory." "We think the inventory problem will be solved in the second quarter," Hsieh said. "First quarter will be slightly weaker." TSMC's archrival, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) (Taiwan:2303.TW - News; NYSE:UMC - News) saw better year-on-year performance with a 24.7 percent rise in December sales to T$5.5 billion, though off the T$6.0 billion in November. Both firms announced revenues after the close of stock market trade in Taiwan on Thursday. TSMC shares slipped 1.08 percent to T$46.00, while UMC dropped 1.72 percent to T$22.90, compared with a 0.48 percent drop in the TAIEX (Taiwan:^TWII - News) share index. TOO OPTIMISTIC Chipmakers' sales usually hit an annual peak in the early part of the fourth quarter as electronics firms stock up on components to meet Christmas sales, but TSMC's October and November sales were well above expectations, leading the firm to raise its forecasts for the quarter. TSMC's strong October and November sales came from sales of inventory that had been manufactured in the third quarter, leading fourth quarter revenues to rise from the previous three months despite falling capacity utilisation. TSMC's customers include firms such as Motorola (NYSE:MOT - News), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN - News) and graphics chip maker Nvidia (NasdaqNM:NVDA - News). TSMC fourth-quarter revenues rose to T$41.1 billion compared with T$39.84 billion in the third quarter due to the rush orders, the one bright note amid a mostly bleak quarter for the semiconductor sector, which saw a brisk recovery from a dismal 2001 fall apart in the middle of last year. TSMC also said its book-to-bill ratio, which measures incoming orders against outgoing shipments, rose above 1.0 in November and December, indicating steady order growth. TSMC said fourth-quarter gross margins were expected to decline five to six percentage points from the third quarter. It is scheduled to announce detailed fourth-quarter financial results at an institutional investors' conference on January 28. (US$1 = T$34.64)

To: BWAC who wrote (4844)	1/9/2003 4:03:41 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Samsung reported to hike capex by 30% By Jack Robertson , EBN January 9, 2003 Samsung Electronics Co. will increase its semiconductor and thin-film-transistor LCD capital spending 30% this year, according to a Morgan Stanley research report released late Wednesday. Keon Han, Morgan Stanley analyst in Seoul, said Samsung will announce its 2003 capex plans as part of its quarterly financial report Jan. 16. He said the Korean chipmaker is on schedule to ramp up its Line 12 300mm wafer fab to begin production in August of this year. Output is slated to be 25K wafers a month. The analyst also said "an additional 300mm wafer Line 13 with 25K wafers a month is on the horizon." Han said Samsung prompted a flurry of rumors last month that it was cutting back its capex when the firm canceled some orders for chip production equipment. "Samsung canceled equipment orders aimed at exercising its bargaining power to pay lower prices as well as productivity improvements on 300mm tools, that reduced the amount of equipment needs." The Morgan Stanley report also said Samsung is on track to ramp up its fifth generation Line 5 TFT-LCD fab to 100K substrates a month. The firm is also building an additional Gen5 Line 6 to begin production in October, eventually ramping up to 60K substrates a month. Samsung also plans a Gen6 TFT-LCD fab exclusively for TV set flat panels, possibly starting production in 2005, the report added.