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Technology Stocks : Ultratech Stepper -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Murphy who wrote (2824)	10/29/1998 2:26:00 AM
From: Tom Murphy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3696

And now for the world report: Top News Thu, 29 Oct 1998, 12:30am EST World Sales of Microchip Making Equipment Slumped 43% in August on Year World Chipmaking Equipment Sales Slumped 43% in August on Year Tokyo, Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide sales of equipment used to make microchips slumped 43.3 percent in August on year, the fourth straight month of decline, as cuts in spending on equipment by Japanese and South Korean semiconductor makers took their toll, industry figures showed. That's hurting the bottom lines of many of the world's largest producers of microchip-making equipment, such as Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. in the U.S., ASM Lithography Holding NV of the Netherlands and Tokyo Electron Ltd., Nikon Corp. and Advantest Corp. in Japan. Worldwide sales of chipmaking equipment totaled $1.167 billion in August, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. Equipment orders, which lag sales by several months, fell in August for the ninth straight month. The drop in sales reflects cuts in spending on equipment by Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, and Japan's six largest chipmakers -- NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Oki Electric Industry Co. Sales slowed in August in all regional markets tracked by the association. Sales in the U.S., the largest single market for such equipment with more than a third of sales worldwide, totaled $419 million in August. Cumulative U.S. sales for the April-August period were 14.4 percent lower than the same period a year earlier. Sales had surged 39.4 percent in the year ended March 31. Japan, the second-largest market for semiconductor-making equipment, had sales of $246 million in August. Cumulative sales for April through August were down 29.1 percent from a year earlier, reflecting cuts in spending on equipment by NEC and Japan's other chipmakers. South Korean sales plummeted to $72.6 million during the month and have tumbled a cumulative 44.0 percent since April, a sign of the impact of the won's sharp depreciation, which has cast the economy into its worst recession in more than 50 years. Sales of microchip-making equipment in South Korea fell 15.8 percent in the year ended March 31, the largest decline of any market tracked by the SEAJ. European sales totaled $173 million in August, and sales for April through August were up 15.5 percent, the only regional market to show growth. Chipmaking-equipment sales figures tend to lag order numbers by up to half a year. The following table gives a breakdown for total worldwide sales of semiconductor-making machinery, in millions of dollars. The percentage changes compare cumulative April-August totals with figures for the same period a year ago. ********************************************************* Equipment August Y-o-Y Change Sales (April-August) ******************************************************* Mask/Reticle Man. Equip. 38.194 42.2% Wafer Man. Equip. 8.026 -67.9% Wafer Processing Equip. 656.530 -16.3% Assembly Equipment 112.010 -24.3% Inspection Equip. 302.895 -13.5% Related Equipment 48.918 -25.1% ******************************************************* TOTAL 1,166,572 -15.8% *********************************************************