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

To: klaus pluszynski who wrote (28536)	2/24/1999 9:26:00 AM
From: Duker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Chip capacity to grow 33% this year, says Japanese researcher A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 5:30 a.m. EST/2:30 a.m., PST, 2/24/99 By Jack Robertson semibiznews.com SEOUL -- The annual growth rate of semiconductor production capacity this year will swell 33% this year after a marked slowdown in 1998, the SEMI Semicon Korea show was told here today. Yasuo Kamatsuzaki, director of market research for SEMI Japan, said the annual growth rate of capacity will rise by 550,000 8-inch wafers a month worldwide, compared to a wafer growth rate last year of 425,000 a month. He said Taiwan will lead the way--more than doubling its capacity growth this year to 240,000 additional 8-inch wafers monthly. The SEMI Japan official said the unprecedented speed of die shrinks will propel 0.18-micron generation chips from negligible output this year to 37% of all semiconductor production next year. The 0.18-micron chips will then decline to a 30% share in 2000, as 0.13-micron devices capture 11% of the market. By contrast, the mainstay 0.25-micron chips, which had 73% share last year, will drop to a 43% share in both this year and in 2000, he said. Kamatsuzaki told a Semicon Korea marketing panel that a revived 300-mm wafer movement will see eight new pilot lines and three development lines launched in 2000. This follows the accepted forecast of two new 300-mm pilot lines this year and one development line. The Japanese market analyst didn't see any major 300-mm production fabs being launched until 2002, when he predicted that four large-scale plants would be ramped up.