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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sorin A. David who wrote (5626)	10/22/1997 2:09:00 AM
From: Mr. Aloha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

WHAT'S EVERYONE'S OPINION ON THIS IMFORMATIVE ARTICLE ON CYMI Check this link for the whole article.... techstocks.com -------------------- Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. October 1997 Intel sets 300-mm line in 1998 Company will launch pilot fab despite slow arrival of lithography tools By Jack Robertson SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Lithography still remains the biggest unsolved barrier to starting up a next-generation fab to process 300-mm-inch wafers, but Intel Corp. reportedly is going ahead anyway next year setting up a pilot line in California. Blah Blah Blah.. So far, Canon Inc.'s Semiconductor Equipment Division in Japan is the only equipment maker to have built a 300-mm stepper, but the system is solely a development tool that can put only test patterns on wafers. Both Sematech's I300I consortium and the Japanese Selete (Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies Inc.) combine are getting the Canon tool to make test wafers. Once I300I completes testing the Canon stepper, it reportedly will go to Intel, which paid for it. What may be slowing the development of production-ready 300-mm gear is the strong market now for current-generation 8-inch wafer tools. ************************************* Lithography system vendors maintained they are hard-pressed now trying to build enough 0.25-micron deep-UV 200-mm tools. The picture may have changed dramatically, however, in recent weeks. At least one supplier, Nikon Corp. of Japan, touched off a market flurry in September when its managers confirmed the company had to stretch out its order delivery schedule over the next year due to overly-optimistic forecasting. Allan Dickinson, marketing director of Nikon Precision Inc., the Belmont, Calif.-based U.S. subsidiary, confirmed his company, like other vendors, had over-estimated the number of tools that it would build next year. He wouldn't say how many or what percentage of step-and-scan and step-and-repeat tools were cut back. Subcontractors then got word of the slowdown. Nikon stretched out its order delivery cycle over the next year with Cymer Inc. for deep-UV excimer lasers. That news in turn caused Cymer managers to cancel at the last minute a presentation to a financial analysts meeting in mid-September. That, of course, ignited a flurry of Wall Street speculation and sharp drop in Cymer stock price. One analyst report erroneously attributed the delivery shakeup to technical problems either with the Cymer laser or the Nikon stepper. But top officials of both firms were quick to deny any technical problems in a telephone conference call with analysts. Cymer President Robert Akins also said his company was able to quickly restructure its 1998 shipment schedule, with other lithography system vendors picking up the delivery spots freed up by the Nikon slippage. ********************************************* So does this mean that the DEMAND for .25-micron equipment is weakening or did a few of the manufactures over-estimate production ability??? "when its managers confirmed the company had to stretch out its order delivery schedule over the next year due to overly-optimistic forecasting" THIS IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION!! Aloha