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Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (5752)	6/9/1998 6:49:00 AM
From: shane forbes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10921

(Taiwan foundries now really hurting, electronics recession?) ---- Taiwan's TSMC, Acer, Asustek May Sales Tumble Taipei, June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Acer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc. - three of the biggest companies in Taiwan's computer-driven economy -- said sales tumbled in May amid slowing worldwide demand. TSMC, the world's biggest customized chip maker, said sales slid for a fourth month, reflecting a 3.1 percent decline in the average price of chips. The semiconductor industry continues to be faced with a challenging environment in 1998 as the economic slowdown in the Asia-Pacific region, oversupply in component products and pricing pressures are expected to remain unchanged in the foreseeable future,'' a TSMC statement said. Taiwan's companies are being squeezed as prices for computer chips fall even as the island's products are made more expensive by regional currency devaluations. Korea's won has lost about 60 percent of its value since late last year, against a 25-percent slump in the Taiwan dollar. U.S. companies, which make up Taiwan's biggest export market - are also are also struggling to clear rising inventories. That's bad news for the world's third-largest computer-related manufacturer after the U.S. and Japan, fund managers said. Acer, the world's eighth-largest PCs maker, said sales last month was NT$6.87 billion, down 13 percent from April. Asustek, which makes motherboards designed for Intel's Corp.'s chip-sets, reported its sales dropped 8.7 percent to NT$2.31 billion. And few analysts see things improving any time soon. Many companies of the industry will see soft demand for a few more months,'' said Tom Hu, a fund manager at Taiwan Securities Investment Co., which manages NT$25.8 billion ($741.4 million) in assets. ''That means their shares don't have much upside to go.'' Taiwan's electronics subindex has fallen 19 percent since May 1, against a 10-percent fall in the benchmark index. Today, TSMC, the market's largest share by value, fell NT$3 to NT$107. TSMC said sales dropped to NT$4.06 billion last month from NT$4.53 billion in April. United Microelectronics Corp., TSMC's major competitor, also had a 22-percent decline in its May sales to NT$1.22 billion. ---- When the strongest start coming apart the warning bells have to go off in the minds of everyone - I actually saw mention of the word 'recession' in a techweb note the other day... o how quickly the world turns... AMAT is going lower... exactly why the SIA is 'whistling dixie' (to quote sbn) is unbeknowns to me... not sure if Taiwan may cut back spending further... still feel BTB going to go lower than 0.70 in this cycle... stories like the above are scary for the semi-equip and the generic semi companies...) ---- shane.