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To: Rob C. who wrote (20574)	1/7/1999 11:39:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 25960

Chip equipment orders seen rising news.com By Reuters Special to CNET News.com January 7, 1999, 5:00 a.m. PT Semiconductor production equipment manufacturers will enjoy a surge in orders in the first half of 1999 as chip producers will increase capital investment to cope with a supply shortage, a leading chip industry analyst said today. Fumiaki Sato, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Group, said he expected orders at chip production equipment makers to jump 57 percent in 1999, which should have an especially strong first half. "Chip production equipment makers will see the biggest change in orders in the first half of 1999," Sato said in a statement. Bright prospects boosted shares in semiconductor production equipment makers today. While chip and technology stocks were generally higher, reflecting strong gains in Nasdaq overnight, Nikon Corp Advantest, and Tokyo Electron, all jumped by more than 7 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sato said inventories of dynamic random access memory chips (DRAMs) had fallen below appropriate levels since late last year, after South Korean chip manufacturers' production cuts and steady sales of personal computers on the global market. He expected tightening supplies to prompt chip manufacturers to increase capital spending by 10 percent in 1999. And the supply shortage should continue until 2000, he said. A 64-megabit DRAM chip, the main memory of most PCs, currently trades at around $9 to $10, after falling to $6 last June. Although January is usually a weak month for demand, the chip market has maintained the firm price trend, industry officials said. They said that if the stable price trend continued, at least the biggest Japanese chip manufacturer, NEC, should be able to post profits in its chip division in the second half of 1998/1999.