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Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: niek who wrote (1368)	3/29/2007 12:26:30 PM
From: niek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 43584

ProMos is an ASML customer. ProMOS: Six DRAM fabs coming on board. DigiTimes.com Thursday 29 March 2007 Given that its quarterly sales should have bottomed in the second quarter of 2007, ProMOS Technologies is delivering a positive prospect over its business outlook throughout 2007 amid the extending influence of Windows Vista, according to company chairman ML Chen. ProMOS is committed to its five-year expansion plan and is planning to house six 12-inch fabs in total. Besides slow season impacts, weakening DRAM prices should suppress quarterly sales growth in the second quarter, Chen told DigiTimes. He was also cited by Taiwan Chinese media in saying that DRAM prices should rebound during May. Business prospects should show a positive trend in the second half of 2007 when seasonality upturns arrive and Vista extends its influence over the memory sector, he stressed. For ProMOS itself, the enlarging production scale on 70nm should also promise a better outlook for the company. After announcing volume production on 70nm, ProMOS reiterated satisfaction over 70nm production, noting that wafer starts should reach 15,000 wafers in April, up from 7,500-8,000 in March, according to company vice president of sales and marketing group Ben Tseng. For Fab 3, ProMOS's second 12-inch fab, as a whole, wafer starts are expected to reach 60,000 wafers by year-end of 2007, up from over 50,000 in April. Fab 4, which is still under construction, will start moving in equipment in the third quarter with an initial capacity of 10,000 wafers, he detailed. Having already applied for land at the same site as Fab 3 and Fab 4, Tseng indicated that construction will begin during late 2007 as scheduled, with a combined capacity of 140,000 wafers per month. With the new fabs coming on board, ProMOS will house a total of five 12-inch fabs in Taiwan with one (Fab 2) in Hsinchu and the remainder in Taichung. Regarding the progress of its first 8-inch fab in China, Tseng said clean room equipment installation should complete in November of 2007 with production to start in the first half of 2008. Target monthly capacity is around 20,000 wafers. He also noted that ProMOS will re-locate some of its 8-inch wafer fabrication facilities from its Hsinchu fab to this China fab in the future. Although DRAM is expanding aggressively, ProMOS is cautious over its expansion on NAND flash. Company executives noted that ProMOS anticipates that it will develop more on NAND flash when it achieves a market share of 10% in the DRAM market, which is likely to be 2008. According to iSuppli, ProMOS had a 4.1% market share in 2006. The company added in saying that NAND flash production in Fab 4 is likely, but the time frame will probably in the second half of 2008.