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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: davesd who wrote (14415)	1/11/1998 3:31:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Respond to of 70976

Dave, >Looks like the bears don't like Hong Kong....WHY????< Who knows? I don't know this guy - as far as I'm concerned he may be another Fleckenstein - and we know THAT cat's agenda. GM

To: davesd who wrote (14415)	1/11/1998 7:04:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Not sure if this was posted: sumnet.com Excerpt: James Morgan, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, expressed the eternal truth about forecasting the market for semiconductor equipment and materials: "It all depends on the overall demand for chips." Korea's troubles at the end of 1997 don't perturb Applied, especially. "We don't have Korea as a high buyer for '98," Mr. Morgan said. He estimates Korea will represent 4 percent of Applied's sales in fiscal '98, after accounting for about 8 percent of sales in fiscal 1997. As the recent news of big orders for Applied indicates, the scene is shifting to the island nation of Taiwan, which is "trying to become supplier of choice" for DRAMs and other devices. AND Lam Research doesn't expect 1998 "to be a bad year," said Steve Newberry, executive VP and COO of Lam. "Currently, what we're seeing for late 1997, 1Q98 is picking up over what it's been for the first nine months of 1997," he added. Semiconductor segments outside of the memory business are generally doing well, he noted. "ASICs have stayed strong. Microprocessors, microcontrollers--we have continued to see these things invested in." While 1997 ended being flat to slightly down from 1996, Mr. Newberry sees the wafer fab equipment segment being flat or "potentially up 5-7 percent" in 1998. "We don't see indications of contraction. We have to be the ones careful about our cost structure. We have the capacity to ramp up in fairly short times. The next four to five months will see what's on the other side of this surge in orders."