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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (27083)	12/11/1998 2:42:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Respond to of 70976

Brian:<<Taiwan's third fab begins ramp>> Brian, more Taiwan information. These guys look serious. Jeff << Taiwan's Chip Makers Set To Recover -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 10, 1998 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- After a disappointing year in the semiconductor industry in 1998, Taiwan's ambitious chip makers are looking to rebound next year. The island's semiconductor industry is projected to grow by a healthy 24.4 percent next year, from $10 billion in 1998, to $12.4 billion in 1999, according to Genda Hu, president of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA), based in Hsinchu. Giving these figures during the opening keynote speech Wednesday at the U.S.-Taiwan Semiconductor Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Hu projected that Taiwan's IC industry is slowly but surely recovering from its first-ever downturn. "This year, Taiwan's chip industry will be flat," Hu told an audience of more than 300 attendees at the conference. "But that's pretty good considering the overall state of the semiconductor industry." But despite the downturn and getting hit with its second memory-dumping complaint by Micron in a year, the Taiwanese chip faction is not waving the white flag. "We still plan to invest $80 billion 1/8in our semiconductor industry 3/8 over the next decade," Hu added. The U.S.-Taiwan Semiconductor Conference, which runs Dec. 9-10, is co-sponsored by the China External Trade Development Council (CETRA), as well as CMP Media, the parent company of Electronic Buyer's News and TechWeb. The idea behind the conference is to forge stronger business ties between Taiwan and the United States, according to Ricky Y.S. Kao, secretary general of the powerful CETRA organization, a quasi-government trade organization, based in Taiwan. At the conference, Taiwan's chip makers not only were promoting their own products and services, but also looking for answers to one big question: When will the worldwide IC industry recover? "We see business picking up now, but its more of a seasonal uptick," said Donald Brooks, CEO of international operations for Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Hsinchu. "I don't think we'll see a recovery until the second half of next year." UMC's foundry rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), had another opinion. "We beginning to see some positive signs," said Magnus Ryde, the new president of TSMC's U.S. operation, TSMC-USA, based in San Jose, Calif. "We could see a recovery before the third quarter of 1999. But when I ask my customers that question, they simply don't know 1/8when the chip market will recover. 3/8" Adding to the capacity-glut problems is that Taiwan is being flooded by more, new foundry competitors -- many of which are looking to grab or steal business away from the Big Three foundry players -- TSMC, UMC, and Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. "Business looks good right now," said Wayne Liang, vice president of a new foundry concern called Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing, based in Hsinchu. Though Taiwan is already the foundry capital of the world, the island faces some big challenges to take it to the next level. "The biggest challenge for Taiwan is developing system-on-a-chip products," Brooks said. "Taiwan is also poised to take a leadership role in DRAM -- if they can hold out until the market picks up." >>