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To: Scotsman who wrote (3825)	9/25/1998 7:57:00 PM
From: Scotsman	Respond to of 4697

Japanese DRAM Makers Scale Back Domestic Ops. (3:20 p.m. EDT, 9/21/98) By Jack Robertson Matushita Electronics Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. , who each closed U.S. fabs this month, are now slated to scale back fab operations in Japan as they cope with sluggish global chip demand. Nikkei press in Tokyo reported Monday that Matsushita will delay the production rampup for a year at a new fab in Tonami, Japan, as well as postpone the start of construction of another fab in Niigata until 2000. The press report also claimed Matsushita was cutting its semiconductor capital spending 40 percent over the next four years down to $450 million. Matsushita earlier this month said it would close its U.S. fab in Puyallup, Washington, that made 4-megabit DRAMs and some consumer electronic ASICs. That fab had been acquired from National Semiconductor Corp. Hitachi is shutting down an epitaxial wafer fab in Ibaraki, Japan. The plant's 8-inch wafer epi production line will be transferred to two other Hitachi facilities, and a 6-inch epi line will be permanently closed. The latest Hitachi scaleback comes in the wake of closing its 6-inch wafer fab in Richardson, Tex., and exiting the Twinstar joint venture fab with Texas Instruments, which was then closed when TI sold its DRAM business to Micron Technology Inc. ebnews.com

To: Scotsman who wrote (3825)	9/25/1998 8:03:00 PM
From: Scotsman	Respond to of 4697

Samsung Sees Chip Oversupply Easing dailynews.yahoo.com.

To: Scotsman who wrote (3825)	9/25/1998 8:39:00 PM
From: Scotsman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4697

'We may have seen the bottom of the slump'' Gwennap said, ''but it's going to be a year or two before we see things actually get better. First companies have to eliminate the overcapacity situation, then they have to return to profitability, and it's only after that they will begin to start ordering new production equipment again.'' Yet some indicators, independent of Intel, are starting to pick up. While semiconductor companies are suffering through a tough August and September, Dehanna is predicting that in November the book-to-bill ratio will reflect positive growth with $107 in new orders for every $100 worth of product shipped. And companies -- and countries -- are starting to address the fundamental problem of too much capacity, analysts said. ''You're seeing Korean and Japanese companies take production off-line in order to reduce capacity,'' Gwennap noted. ''I'm aware of five mega-fabs that aren't producing at full capacity. And that's a good thing.'' And the industry, however fitfully, is starting to benefit from those moves. Last week Micron Technology Inc. -- the largest U.S. manufacturer of memory chips following its acquisition of Texas Instruments' DRAM operations -- raised prices for its 64-megabit memory to more than $8, up from $7.60 just a few weeks ago. Morgan Stanley financial analyst Jay Dehanna Lynley Gwennap, editor of the Microprocessor Report, a San Jose-based industry newsletter