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

To: etchmeister who wrote (20863)	10/16/2006 9:05:24 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Global chip equipment August sales +51.4 pct yr/yr Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:00am ET TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Global sales of chip-making gear in August rose 51.4 percent from a year earlier, and demand is expected to stay strong, an industry group said on Monday. Sales of tools used to make semiconductors rose worldwide to $3.04 billion in August, with sales growing over 70 percent from the year-ago period for wafer processing equipment, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) said. Orders worldwide for chip equipment in August rose 50 to 60 percent from a year earlier, SEAJ spokesman Toshihisa Kuno said. A rise in orders is good for revenues three to six months ahead, when the orders are usually filled. "There's no sign of a downturn through the end of the year. I don't think we have silicon cycles any more," he said, referring to the cyclical ups and downs seen in the semiconductor industry. "Demand is especially strong in China and South Korea." Healthy demand for mobile phones, digital music players and flat screen TVs is raising semiconductor demand and prompting chip makers to ramp up production capacity and buy more chip-making equipment. The SEAJ compiles the monthly data with another industry group, California-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). Major producers of chip-making equipment include Advantest Corp. (6857.T: Quote, NEWS, Research), Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (8035.T: Quote, NEWS, Research). Following are August chip gear sales figures (in million dollars, year-on-year percentage change in parentheses): Value year/year Japan 717.686 (+9.0) N. America 499.919 (+40.3) Europe 238.777 (+40.2) S. Korea 530.233 (+167.4) Taiwan 512.407 (+69.0) China 272.222 (+163.3) Other 268.015 (+23.6) TOTAL 3,039.258 (+51.4)