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To: StanX Long who wrote (9364)	4/9/2003 10:49:47 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95622

Asia trade show delayed due to SARS By Chris Kraeuter, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 2:55 PM ET April 9, 2003 www2.marketwatch.com SINGAPORE (CBS.MW) -- Southeast Asia's largest annual exhibition dedicated to makers of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment has been postponed for three months due to concerns about the SARS virus. Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, an industry group, said the SEMICON Singapore 2003 exposition will now be held Aug. 12-14 instead of its original plans for May 6-8. "A number of exhibitors as well as their customers have instituted travel restrictions or are hesitant to participate in public gatherings in Singapore at this time," said Stanley Myers, chief executive of SEMI. The group joins many other organizers and business people in Asia who have rescheduled events as part of the spreading fallout from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a highly contagious and potentially fatal virus that is believed to have originated in Asia but has spread through the world. See full story. Big tech companies including Intel (INTC: news, chart, profile), Motorola (MOT: news, chart, profile) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: news, chart, profile) have each sent hundreds of workers home recently in Hong Kong and Singapore due to SARS concerns. Earlier this week, semiconductor analyst Auguste Richard cut his industry growth expectations for 2003 from 8 percent to a contraction of 5 percent, due to potential SARS ramifications. "We see it impacting the normal day-to-day operations of the companies we cover," Richard wrote in a report earlier this week. "Virtually every conversation with our contacts includes some discussion of SARS and virtually all our contacts are canceling travel plans to Asia." On Monday, Microchip Technology (MCHP: news, chart, profile), a maker of analog chips and highly integrated circuits called microcontrollers, cited a revenue and earnings shortfall for the quarter due in part to SARS. See full story. Microchip Chief Executive Steve Sanghi said, "The spread throughout Asia of SARS is inhibiting business travel and, in some cases, purchasing decisions, as many customers are temporarily closing plants to avoid the spread of the disease." Chris Kraeuter is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.

To: StanX Long who wrote (9364)	4/10/2003 12:25:30 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95622

TSMC, UMC show strong sales in March, exceed expectations Semiconductor Business News (04/09/03 06:32 a.m. EST) siliconstrategies.com HSINCHU, Taiwan — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), the world's two largest wafer fabs recorded strong growth of sales in March. Although the figures followed a slow February, which covered the Chinese new year holiday period, the gains versus March a year before suggested an upbeat second quarter for 2003, observers said. TSMC's net sales for March 2003 were about $397.2 million up, 12.2 percent over the previous month and up 12.8 percent on a year-on-year basis. TSMC's sales revenue for the first quarter of 2003 was about $1.13 billion, an increase of 9.9 percent over the same period in 2002. UMC's sales in March were about $202 million, up 29.7 percent from February 2003 and up 55.1% from the same month a year before. For the first quarter of 2003 UMC sales were about $513 million up 47.2 percent from the first quarter of 2002. “TSMC's revenue has clearly touched bottom in the first quarter of 2003. The revenue growth for March 2003 was mainly due to increased wafer shipments and increased demand for advanced technologies, including the company's 0.13-micron process technology,” said Harvey Chang, chief financial officer at TSMC, in a statement. Chang added that the monthly sales for the second quarter of 2003 are expected to increase sequentially. According to reports, TSMC was closer to the top end of the expected range of its March sales while UMC was well in excess of its expected sales. Although industry executives have spoken of an expected rebound during 2003 similar rebound hopes were held in 2002 before they eventually disappeared in a second-half dip. In their announcing their March sales figures neither TSMC nor UMC mentioned any likely impact on sales from U.S. military activity in Iraq or the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) a potentially deadly flu-like virus that has recently hit China and Singapore.