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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (9391)	4/12/2003 3:28:05 AM
From: advocatedevil	Respond to of 95622

"Leading-edge foundry glut seen in 2005, says report" By Semiconductor Business News Apr 11, 2003 (3:35 PM) URL: siliconstrategies.com SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- While there is a glut of “trailing-edge” foundry capacity right now, the IC industry still faces a shortage of “leading-edge” wafers in the marketplace. But competition is heating up in the leading-edge or sub-180-nm silicon foundry market, with a possible threat of overcapacity in this segment by 2005, according to a new report from Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA) here today (April 11, 2003). “Foundry companies are in grave danger of suffering from overcapacity and unprofitability, much like the DRAM manufacturers of the 1990s,” said George Burns, president of SMA, a market research firm in San Cruz. “The top foundries are looking over their shoulders and seeing more competitors, and not just the IDMs. With so many companies chasing the leading edge, it's going to be very difficult to find a safe place to stand,” Burns said in a statement. Currently, the top three foundries--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., United Microelectronics Corp., and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd.--own 75 percent of the sub-180-nm foundry capacity in the worldwide market, according to SMA's World Fab Watch. From 2000 through 2005, the top three foundries will have brought 12 fabs online, with a capacity when fully ramped, of more than 600,000 equivalent 200-mm wafers a month, according to SMA. Other pure-play foundries, plus the “IDM foundries,” will have added even more capacity. For example, startup foundries such as Silterra, Dongbu, SMIC and Grace are also looking to ramp up leading-edge capacity. And the “IDM foundries” like IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Division and Toshiba Corp. are looking at advanced processes as an attractive market. According to Burns, IBM poses the greatest threat to TSMC, UMC and Chartered. IBM's 300-mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. is ramping quickly and the company is “is already siphoning business away from TSMC and UMC by capturing business with AMD and Nvidia,” according to Burns. AdvocateDevil