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Technology Stocks : Atmel - the trend is about to change -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SemiBull who wrote (13213)	11/12/2003 1:32:16 PM
From: tech101	Respond to of 13565

Gartner sees chip market growing 20% in 2004 By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 11/12/2003, 12:20 PM ET NEW YORK -- The worldwide semiconductor market is forecast to reach nearly $210 billion, a 20 percent increase over the 2003 figure of $174 billion in 2003, market research company Gartner Inc. said Wednesday (November 12, 2003). Gartner's latest 2003 forecast figure represents an 11.7 percent increase over $156 billion sales in 2002. The numbers were presented during the Gartner Tech Investor Summit, a three-day event that concludes Wednesday and are described as "preliminary". "The surge in semiconductor sales over the past two quarters has been mainly a supply-driven story," said Jeremey Donovan, research vice president for Gartner's semiconductor research group, in a statement. "Capacity utilization is marching upward and the quarterly Dataquest Semiconductor Inventory Index (DASI) reveals that semiconductor inventory in the supply chain is near ideal levels. Moreover, on the demand side, there have been encouraging signs of third quarter economic growth that should gradually trickle into improvements in IT spending." Gartner analysts said that in front-end semiconductor manufacturing, silicon demand is increasing, overall wafer fab utilization now exceeds 80 percent and leading-edge foundry wafer pricing has firmed. In packaging and assembly, overall utilization rates continue to increase on a monthly basis and leading-edge capacity has tightened as demand grows for advanced packaging solutions.