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

To: StanX Long who wrote (11352)	9/2/2003 2:27:39 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95916

Singapore Chartered boosts top-line chips output sg.news.yahoo.com Tuesday September 2, 1:18 PM SINGAPORE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Loss-making contract chip maker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd said on Tuesday it had achieved bulk production for its most-advanced chip-making technology, which would boost yields and average selling prices. This would help Chartered , which ranks fourth in the global market for built-to-order chips, to close the technology gap with rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's largest contract microchip maker, and second-ranked United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), analysts said. Analysts, however, said that while higher yields would mean improved product quality, their views on Chartered were unchanged. The Singapore chip maker, which has reported losses for 10 straight quarters, said volume production of its high-end 0.13-micron technology had achieved a lower rate of defective chips per wafer, or what the industry calls higher yield. Poor yield is common with manufacturing processes using new technology. A smaller micron number means better performance as more circuits can be packed into a single chip. One thousand microns is equal to one millimetre. Chartered, which started production with the 0.13-micron process in the fourth quarter of 2002, derived about five to six percent of its revenues from the technology in the April-to-June quarter. The company, which has shipped 10,000 wafers to date using the 0.13-micron process, supplies to customers Broadcom Corp , Alliance Semiconductor Corp and Integrated Silicon Solution Inc . Jatin Doktor, analyst at GK Goh Research, said he was maintaining his buy recommendation on Chartered with a target price of S$1.40 a share. "They have been doing it for a couple of quarters already. It's just that the level of production, the quality has improved," said Doktor. Russell Tan, analyst at Netresearch Asia, said he was keeping his hold recommendation on the company. "It just managed to do this, which its Taiwanese competitors have been doing for ages." Chartered ranks a distant fourth behind TSMC , UMC and International Business Machines Corp , after the U.S. giant's microchip division overtook the Singapore firm last year to become the third-largest supplier. Chartered shares were up 2.6 percent at S$1.17 on Tuesday morning. It was the third-most actively traded stock, with a volume of 22.8 million shares. The stock, which has jumped about 65 percent from the start of the year, has outperformed the broader Straits Times Index by nearly 38 percent.