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To: Earlie who wrote (28009)	2/8/1998 3:01:00 PM
From: TREND1	Respond to of 53903

Earlie The real story on Taiwan and S. Korea ! No 'Asian flu' for Taiwan Asia's financial crisis may be slamming most countries in the region, but Taiwan still seems to be unaffected. In fact, the island nation is trying to capitalize on this mess to keep its own electronics industry growing, Mark LaPedus writes in EBN. Buoyed by a stable economy and foreign reserves of more than $80 billion, Taiwan has experienced only a minor decline in its currency and stock market since the turmoil began last summer and its IC and PC makers continue to be financially sound. Most of its IC makers plan to expand their wafer-fab capacities this year, a time when their rivals in South Korea, Japan, and Thailand are scaling back. As a result, Taiwan's IC industry is expected to grow by 20.5%, to $8.2 billion from $6.8 billion last year, predicted the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Is that where the action is? So, can Taiwan replace South Korea as the global IC industry's hot spot? Perhaps. But Taiwan's DRAM makers are still losing money due to slumping prices and its wafer-foundries are getting a lot more competition from Japan and South Korea. The local chip business is in relatively good financial shape, however. "The Koreans got into trouble because they borrowed too much money from foreign banks," says Dataquest Taiwan's Ben Lee. "Taiwan companies are financially sound because they don't like to borrow too much money." They run only 15% to 50% more debt than equity, while the South Korean chip giants typically carry three times more debt than equity. Taiwan had only a 5.7% share of the DRAM business in '96, but could increase that share by 50% to 10% this year. Larry Dudash