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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (6196)	5/26/2003 10:25:13 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Fab capacity utilization climbs higher, says SICAS By Peter Clarke Semiconductor Business News (05/26/03 07:40 a.m. EST) BRUSSELS, Belgium --- Overall wafer fab capacity utilization turned up in the first quarter of 2003 reaching 82.8 percent, up from 81.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2002, according to the latest Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics (SICAS) report, released recently by the European Electronic Component Manufacturers Association (EECA). Fab capacity utilization breaking above 90 percent usually heralds increasing chip prices. The last time the SICAS capacity utilization was above 90 percent was in the fourth quarter of 2000. It subsequently dipped to 64.2 percent in the third quarter of 2001 and has been climbing slowly since during a protracted industry slowdown. However the latest number showed the capacity utilization figure moving slowly as it averaged some contrary trends in different sectors of the market. The figure for MOS wafer fab capacity utilization, at 83.6 percent up from 81.9 percent, was higher than the total figure whereas bipolar utilization was lower and fell from 76.6 percent to 74.4 percent, according to the report. The report also shows that capacity utilization is much tighter for leading edge process technology nodes, but actually relaxed back slightly. For manufacturing process technology at less than 0.3-micron the wafer fab capacity was 92.4 percent in the first quarter of 2003 down from the unsustainable 97.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2002.