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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (7182)	9/16/2003 9:15:30 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

iSuppli Raises 2003 Forecast Slightly Online Staff -- Electronic News, 9/16/2003 Citing brightening conditions in the semiconductor industry, market research company iSuppli Corp. raised its estimate of annual growth in the industry to 9.9 percent, up from 9 percent, the company said today. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) chip numbers for July indicate that the global semiconductor market remains on track for high single-digit growth this year, iSuppli said. The data showed continued improvement in chip sales in the first month of Q3. Global chip sales hit $12.9 billion in July, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which maintains a three-month rolling average based on the WSTS data. It represented both a monthly and year-over-year rise in sales. Mobile SRAM Enjoy First Half Meanwhile, SRAM suppliers to the mobile handset market enjoyed a strong first half, according to iSuppli analyst Betsy Van Hees. Sales of mobile handsets grew in the first half, driving demand for low power asynchronous SRAM and pseudo SRAM, and suppliers Samsung Electronics Co., Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. all benefited. "In contrast, the wired communications area continued to struggle in the first half of 2003, hurting the results of companies supplying SRAMs to the market, i.e. IBM Microelectronics, Sony Semiconductor and GSI Technology," Van Hees stated in a research note. The end result for SRAM was modest growth. Revenues generated by SRAM rose to $1.23 billion, up 2.8 percent year over year, according to iSuppli. Unit sales during the period increased 8 percent, but that continued weakness in wired telecom, coupled with a weak networking market and excess fab capacity at multiple SRAM vendors caused ASPs to decline 5 percent in the first half of the year, the company said. Renesas, the joint venture between semiconductor operations of Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., saw the biggest growth in revenue year over year, jumping 49 percent to $184.65 million. IBM, consequently, saw the biggest drop, with revenues plummeting 71 percent year over year to $33 million. IBM also lost market share during the period, according to iSuppli. Its share of the market contracted to just 2.7 percent, down from 9 percent in the first half of 2002. While IBM was the second largest supplier of SRAM just two years ago, it has fallen to No. 8. Renesas meanwhile saw its share of the market grow from 10.4 percent to 15 percent, the market research company said. SRAM market leader Samsung still controlled the biggest chunk of the market, with 32.5 percent share and $400 million in revenue during the first six months of the year.