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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (27913)	1/29/1999 2:25:00 PM
From: LemurHouse	Respond to of 70976

Well said.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (27913)	1/29/1999 2:44:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

November, 1998 semi equipment numbers for those that would like to look at a little history. Jeff <<World Chipmaking Equipment Sales Slumped 54% in Nov. on Year Tokyo, Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide sales of equipment used to make microchips slumped 53.5 percent in November from the same month in 1997, the seventh straight month of decline, as U.S. and Japanese semiconductor makers reduced orders, 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 $1.051 billion in November, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. Equipment orders, which lag sales by several months, fell in November for the 12th straight month. The drop in sales reflects cuts in spending on equipment last year by Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, Motorola Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Japan's six biggest semiconductor producers. The six -- NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Oki Electric Industry Co. -- are cutting investment on their microchip businesses by a combined 44 percent in the year ending March 31. Analysts expect chipmaking equipment sales to begin to improve during the May-September period. The cuts in investment by chipmakers mean that cumulative sales for the April-November period declined in each of the five regional markets tracked by the SEAJ. Sales in the U.S., the largest single market for such equipment with more than a third of sales worldwide, totaled $367 million in November. Cumulative U.S. sales for the April-November period were 27.7 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 $214 million in November. Cumulative sales for April through November slumped 42.1 percent from a year earlier, reflecting cuts in spending on equipment by NEC and the nation's other chipmakers. South Korean sales totaled $93 million during the month, resulting in a cumulative tumble of 52.1 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. 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-November totals with figures for the same period a year ago. ********************************************************* Equipment November Y-o-Y Change Sales (April-November) ******************************************************* Mask/Reticle Man. Equip. 33.501 23.3% Wafer Man. Equip. 1.592 -71.9% Wafer Processing Equip. 656.250 -33.3% Assembly Equipment 126.233 -25.8% Inspection Equip. 181.062 -31.5% Related Equipment 52.023 -35.1% ******************************************************* TOTAL 1,050,661 -31.6% ********************************************************* >>