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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (3228)	4/22/1998 9:27:00 PM
From: Stitch	Respond to of 9980

Sam, I don't know if shortages of wafers and disks will result but I suspect not. There is a substantial overcapacity of both anyway. As it turns out the media manufacturers have not been all that hard hit yet. I spoke yesterday with a couple of them in Penang and learned that they have not had rationing yet. Here is an article about a local wafer fab however (local meaning here in the Klang Valley where Kuala Lumpur is and the situation is worse then elsewhere). KUALA LUMPUR -- Hit by the water crisis, the Hulu Klang factory of one of the world's largest manufacturers of silicon wafers is struggling to stay afloat. Like other factories in the Hulu Klang Free Trade Zone, Japanese-owned SEH Malaysia Sdn Bhd has been forced to cut production by almost 50 per cent since last month, The Malay Mail said on Saturday. The factory, whose annual turnover is in the hundreds of millions of ringgit, needs between 9,000 and 10,000 cu m of water for a full-day operation. Most of it is used to run air-conditioning units and for cleaning purposes. "We are producing delicate products for the semi-conductor industry and they must be cleaned thoroughly," said its facility manager, Mr Mohd Fauzi Ishak. "Without water, we cannot run our plant. We are the Klang Valley's single biggest user of water." Despite suffering a huge loss in productivity last month, the company has to spend millions of ringgit to build a water tank with a 6,000 cu m capacity. The tank is almost ready. "However, it would take more than two weeks to fill it given the low water pressure," he said, referring to the low reading on the pressure gauge near the water mains. The company has three underground tanks which can store 1,900 cu m of water, a tube well and 10 private tankers at its disposal. This is still inadequate. The tanks were built more than 20 years ago to provide 24 hours of water in case of disruptions in supply. However, with increased production, it can last only four hours. Mr Mohd Fauzi said that while the state government has called on factories to reduce production, SEH had been forced to do so since last month. "It is difficult to draw up a schedule for the workers as the water-rationing schedule does not usually work," he said. The company maintains a three-shift operation and workers are idle when there is no supply. Texas Instruments (M) Sdn Bhd and Harris Advanced Technology (M) Sdn Bhd, both huge semi-conductor manufacturers, are also in the Hulu Klang Free Trade Zone. Selangor is the industrial hub of the nation. Rationing started on Mar 27 and will continue until May 5, when there will be a review.