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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C E D who wrote (26618)	11/23/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Respond to of 70976

Ed:<<The AMAT thread is one of the best on SI, remarkably civil and well informed. If one thinks a post is worthless it should be ignored and move on. Thanks for your attention to this matter. Ed>> O.K., O.K., I deserved a 15 yard personal foul penalty for that. Jeff

To: C E D who wrote (26618)	11/23/1998 12:43:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Respond to of 70976

Some AMAT news. Jeff << Chip Gear Index Rises -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nov 23, 1998 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Is it light at the end of the tunnel? It's not clear just yet, but North American suppliers of chip-production equipment saw a vast improvement in business during October when they posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.73, based on new data from the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group. In September, SEMI's book-to-bill ratio was 0.56 -- a low point in the current industry recession. "It is very heartening that the October data for industry orders shows some improvement after so many months of steady decline," said Stanley Myers, president of SEMI, in Mountain View, Calif. "Activity in the next few months will tell if this is, in fact, the first step on the road to recovery for the equipment industry. In any event, we expect the resolution of capacity issues and world financial problems to occur gradually. "A full industry recovery may be several months away," Myers added. A ratio of 0.73 means equipment suppliers were receiving $73 in orders for each $100 worth of products shipped. The ratio has steadily dropped since a year ago, when the impact of the Asian financial crisis hit the semiconductor industry and a glut of capacity sent average chip prices lower in 1998. SEMI's three-month average for shipments in October was $844.4 million, which is up slightly from September's $840.5 million. October's shipment figure was 46 percent below the average last year. SEMI's three-month average for bookings rose 31 percent in October to $618.5 million compared with $472 million in September, but it was 61 percent lower than a year ago. While not discounting the industry's growth, one analyst said the book-to-bill increase stems from an unusual pickup in orders from Applied Materials, which reported its fourth quarter's earnings results earlier this week. "We believe better-than-expected orders by Applied Materials drove much of the bookings improvement," said Jay Deahna of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, in San Francisco, in a report. "Applied's better-than-expected orders in October were derived mainly from two large domestic chip makers, one for leading-edge 0.18-micron capacity expansion and another for process technology improvements at 0.25 microns/0.22 microns. "In particular, we believe one of those orders -- the process improvement one -- does not indicate a trend and may have helped the October North American equipment book-to-bill ratio to look a little better than expected," Deahna said. However, Deahna said other chip suppliers have started to look into adding capacity and improving process technology, which may bode well for equipment vendors in the later part of 1999. "A number of chip makers have recently surfaced with requests for quotations for new fabs and existing fab expansions. Some are looking for capacity 1/8mostly microprocessor vendors such as Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor 3/8, some are looking for advanced process capability 1/8especially DRAM vendors such as Micron and Samsung 3/8, and others want to get ready for expected demand in 2000 1/8foundries in particular 3/8," he said. "The key question is, what level of recovery can this drive for the equipment industry? The real acceleration we expect to occur starting in the second half of 1999 should be increasingly broad-based and driven by the need to expand capacity."