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Technology Stocks : Veeco Instruments-Who? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mitchell who wrote (1478)	9/3/1998 9:23:00 AM
From: B.G. Mayers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3069

Found this article of interest. Electronic News 8/31/98 By Jim DeTar Tokyo--Pricing in the memory market may have bottomed out, with a possible 4Q98 uptick on the way. At least that's the viewpoint of one top memory executive, Kazunari Shirai, senior VP of Fujitsu Ltd.'s Electronic Devices Group here. According to Mr. Shirai, the number two Fujitsu memory executive worldwide, Fujitsu's memory orders are up and pricing is more stable than it has been in a year. Fujitsu has just begun production of 64-megabit synchronous DRAMs at the 0.22-micron level and would certainly like to see a return to more normal pricing. Fujitsu recently announced it will start volume production of the 64Mb family here in late September, priced at around $12 per unit, and it is expected that it will expand production to the company's Gresham, Ore. Manufacturing facilities in mid-Autumn. "At this time, there is almost no 64-megabit inventory in either Japan or the U.S. and Fujitsu's domestic (Japan) production is steady," Mr. Shirai said in comments made here in Japan recently. "For 16-megabit products, there remains an imbalance due to remaining high capacity in Taiwan and Korea. The Iwate factory did complete a short summer vacation," he noted. One factor that bodes well for a strengthening in memory prices is an uptick in sales at Fujitsu. "Sales strengthened in July, the third consecutive 'up' month from the low point in April, and Fujitsu's own 'book-to-bill' ratio is now 1.44, up from 0.77 at the low." September is expected to remain strong, Mr. Shirai said. "It may be a temporary upswing, however; it is too soon to tell if that is the case." Leading PC manufacturers have indicated that the imbalances in the product pipeline are being eliminated quickly now, in part because of Windows 98 which has incrementally helped sales. Furthermore, Fujitsu's sales increase was not achieved by reducing prices, according to Mr. Shirai. "Fujitsu is focused on leadership in OEM supply and is not, and will not, attempt to be a low-cost producer. "So, the company is not going to focus on making 'low-end' memory products. However, the DRAM business means a lot to our semiconductor business, as DRAM is important as a technology driver and, after the year 2000, DRAM becomes a core technology." The next generation program at Fujitsu, as at several other memory vendors, involves 128Mb and 256Mb products "which are now in the roadmap," he said, "with first samples of the 256Mb memory ICs scheduled for mid-1999 and production on 256Mb in the year 2000." The U.S. could see production of these by the end of 1999. "Fujitsu also is in the front line of the introduction of 300-millimeter wafers and is very committed to the system LSI concept," Mr. Shirai said, citing LSI cooperative agreements with companies such as Sony Corp. in Japan. etc.......... Seems there is some positive news from Tokyo in SDRAM area serving the high end PC market. This hopefully is or will be positive to the memory market also and Veeco. Veeco sales to Japan are 18% of total. It would be nice to see Veeco BTB go to 1.44 also. GO VEECO