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

To: etchmeister who wrote (11111)	8/5/2004 8:28:21 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Foundry sales to grow 33% in 2004, says researcher By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 08/05/2004, 7:00 AM ET SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The foundry sector of the semiconductor chip market will grow 33 percent in 2004 compared with 2003, according to VLSI Research Inc., a market research company. This is despite the fact that second quarter 2004 sales at the world's largest foundry Taiwan Semicondutor Manufacturing Company Ltd., were up only 30 percent compared with the same quarter in the previous year, as TSMC reported July 29. TSMC is expecting sales to increase in the third quarter but many observers are expecting the second half of 2004 to soften and second tier foundries do not appear to have been doing as well as TSMC and its rival United Microelectronics Corp. Accordiing to VLSI Research total employment in the foundry sector grew 17 percent in 2003 and employee productivity rose to about US$285,000 per employee. The market research firm said that total sales, which rose 31 percent in 2003, are expected to increase another 33 percent in 2004. Pretax income, as a percentage of sales, should gain another 17 points in 2004 while gross margins are anticipated to rise 11 points. Foundry employment would continue its upswing with a forecasted 12 percent increase in 2004.