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To: Tom Latham who wrote (38064)	10/28/1997 4:16:00 PM
From: Joey Smith	Respond to of 186894

All: Article: Dataquest lowers semiconductor growth amid crisis: Dataquest Downgrades Asian Chip Growth (10/28/97; 12:10 p.m. EST) By Mark LaPedus, Semiconductor Business News TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Amid a financial crisis in Asia and the global stock markets, Dataquest has revised its forecast downward for the total growth in Asia-Pacific's chip business by nearly 6 percent this year. Dataquest originally forecasted that Asia-Pacific's total integrated circuit business would grow by 15 percent to $34 billion in 1997, but the market research company now predicts the region will only achieve 8 percent growth, to $32 billion, this year. The forecast reflects Asia-Pacific's financial crisis, stock market collapses, currency problems, and an otherwise sluggish dynamic RAM business, according to Daniel Heyler, a senior analyst with Dataquest Asia-Pacific Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong. Even more troublesome is the region's economic crisis is not a short-term problem. "Most people believe Asia-Pacific will take 12 to 18 months to work itself out of these problems," Heyler said. There are some exceptions to the rule. ''Greater China remains stable,'' Helyer said, ''but there's problems in Japan, South Korea, as well as Southeast Asia.'' So far, however, multinational chip makers remain causiously optimistic about their businesses in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world. Stanly Huang, Intel's Asia-Pacific marketing manager, said at a media event in Taipei, Taiwan, that the U.S. chip giant is experiencing strong demand for its Pentium II processors in the region despite the economic problems. Huang, however, declined to comment on the impact of the region's crisis on Intel's own chip business. ''I don't want to comment about that,'' he said. On Tuesday, Intel launched a $10 million advertising campaign to push its Pentium II chip in Asia-Pacific. Others remain somewhat bullish. Japan's NEC announced that its total IC sales hit 600 billion yen for the first half of its fiscal year, ended Sept. 30, a 13 percent jump compared with the like period a year ago. For the second half of this year, NEC said it predicts its total IC sales will hit 660 billion yen, a 16 percent jump over the like period last year. For its fiscal year, NEC said its total IC sales will be about 1.26 trillion yen, a 15 percent growth rate over last year. Group sales for NEC grew 8.4 percent to 1.972 trillion yen for the six-month period, compared with 1.82 trillion yen. NEC's net profit jumped 15 percent to 35.76 billion yen, from 31.31 billion yen. However, citing stiff competition and falling margins, Japan's Toshiba announced that its net profit fell 23 percent to 22.45 billion yen for the first half of its fiscal year, ended Sept. 30. For the year, Toshiba said it predicts a net profit of 54 billion yen, a 10 percent drop compared with the like period a year ago.