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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11901)	9/29/2003 1:07:35 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95520

Worldwide IC sales jumps 4% in strong August Silicon Strategies September 29, 2003 (9:45 a.m. ET) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $13.42 billion in August, up 4 percent from $12.9 billion the previous month, according to new figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The August numbers represent the sixth consecutive monthly increase for the chip industry. Worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $12.905 billion in July, up 2.9 percent from $12.544 billion in June and up 10.5 percent from July 2002. Year-over-year sales increased 12.5 percent from $11.93 billion in August 2002, according to the trade grouo, based here. "August sales confirm the broad-based strength of the semiconductor market, lead by demand in the consumer, computer and wireless sectors," SIA President George Scalise said in a statement. "This rise in end-market demand is generating stronger third quarter sales than normal seasonal patterns." In August, PC related products continued to be the strongest sector, with microprocessors up 7.8 percent and DRAMs up 11 percent over July, the group said. The positive growth was due to seasonal back-to-school PC purchases and early signs of a business upgrade cycle, it said. The consumer sector, which includes DVD players and digital cameras, continued to strengthen with consumer application specific standard products up 5.3 percent and flash memory up 6.9 percent over last month. Inventory issues in the Asian wireless sector have been resolved and demand is once again rising, with DSPs up 4.7 percent over July. August sales in Japan rose 1.6 percent, Asia Pacific sales rose 6.4 percent, Europe was up 3.8 percent and the Americas increased 2.5 percent over July. "With the exception of the peak year of 2000, this is the strongest monthly increase in August since 1990," Scalise said. The SIA's Global Sales Report is a three-month moving average of sales activity. The report is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization, which represents approximately 66 companies. The moving average is a mathematical smoothing technique that mitigates variations due to companies' monthly financial calendars.

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11901)	9/29/2003 1:21:49 PM
From: The Ox	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95520

If the current trend continues, I think the US chip sector is going to be playing catch up with their Asian counterparts. The trend here is still to cut and belt tighten. While this is very understandable given the length and depth of the trough, I have to wonder if we have, once again, continued to cut when we should have been starting to ramp up. Hopefully, the cutbacks have created more efficient entities which are more capable and therefore can ramp up quickly as more data confirms the growing end user demand.