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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ---------- who wrote (2803)	12/17/1997 7:23:00 AM
From: Scotsman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4697

Yep, I don't expect much for the next two quarters. After that I think (or hope) that things start to move back up. I guess the next quarter is the big question mark. Will it be a complete disaster with WFR going down a lot more, or is all the bad news out.

To: ---------- who wrote (2803)	12/17/1997 11:17:00 AM
From: TREND1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4697

A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted at 10:30 a.m. EST/7:30 a.m. PST, 12/17/97 Taiwan's Powerchip delays 300-mm fab By Mark LaPedus TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Facing an assortment of technical hurdles, Taiwan DRAM start-up Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. has delayed plans to build its initial 300-mm wafer fab. Hsinchu-based Powerchip--a joint DRAM manufacturing venture between Taiwan's Umax Group and Japan's Kanematsu Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.--earlier this year said it was planning to break ground on its a 300-mm fab in December. Production for the new 300-mm fab was slated for early 1999 or so. Powerchip was positioning itself as being one of the first chip makers in Taiwan to have a 300-mm fab, but the ground-breaking ceremony has been pushed back to mid- to late-1998, according to Frank Huang, chairman of the Taiwan DRAM maker, speaking at a press event here today. Many semiconductor analysts and fab operators now believe the industry's transition from 200-mm to 300-mm wafers is also being delayed because too few production tools will be ready by the end of 1998 (see feature from SBN's December publication). Huang did not disclose when Powerchip will have its 300-mm fab in operation. "We will have a 300-mm fab,'' he insisted, "but nobody else is rushing to build a 300-mm fab either. So why should we? Besides, the [300-mm processing] equipment has not been finalized.'' Other Taiwan chip maker are also expected to push out their 300-mm fab plans for similar reasons. Since the beginning of this year, local chip makers in total have announced plans to build twenty-five to thirty 300-mm fabs over a 10-year period--all for a staggering investment of about $67 billion. Many of these announcements have been met with skepticism from industry analysts and chip managers elsewhere in the world.