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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (14200)	4/12/2005 2:05:29 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Executives ponder semi equipment market: half full, half empty? Peter Clarke EE Times (04/12/2005 1:41 PM EDT) MUNICH, Germany — In her role as moderator of a panel session at the opening press conference of Semicon Europa exhibition Mary Puma, president and chief executive officer of chip production equipment company Axcelis Technologies Inc. found herself taking a different position to Intel Fellow Paolo Gargini. Puma made the observation that economic cycles for semiconductor equipment seemed to be getting shorter and asked the question: "Where are we in the cycle and when will the "up" part of the cycle last more than one year?" Gargini, who serves as chairman of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, argued that for the semiconductor equipment vendors business 2004 was a great year that came off the back of the downturn of 2001 through 2003. "In 2004 we came back and 2006 and 2007 will be better than 2005. We are looking at four years of up cycle," he told journalists at the Semicon Europa exhibition and conference According to industry organization Semiconductor Equipment and Material International (SEMI) 2004 was indeed good with the market expanding 67 percent compared with 2003, but SEMI is predicting a 5 percent annual fall in 2005 followed by modest increases in 2006 and 2007. Puma responded to Gargini by saying: "Visibility remains very murky. It's the worst its been for 12 to 18 months. The DRAM makers are saying they will spend but the IDMs and foundries are saying they won't spend on equipment until they see orders from their customers." Tetsuro Higashi, chairman and CEO of Tokyo Electron Ltd. and chairman of SEMI took a middle position saying the shortened irregular cycles were symptoms of a chip industry in transition from 17 percent annual growth to 8 percent annual growth and an increased reliance on consumer electronics. Stanley Myers, president and chief executive officer of SEMI said the prediction of a 5 percent decline for 2005 had been made prior to capital spending plans announced by Intel and Samsung. Myers said he was hopeful that the industry would do better than the predicted fall.