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

To: Ian@SI who wrote (29132)	3/20/1999 1:26:00 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Korean chip sales are hot and hopes are that they will reach highest level since 1995. Jeff << South Koreans Saw Chips Sales Rebound In 1998 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Filed: Friday, March 19, 1999 12:25 PM EST Mar 19, 1999 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's top three IC makers, plagued by huge losses over the previous two years, registered gains of as much as $640 million in 1998. As chip sales continue to pick up in the first quarter of 1999, hopes are rising here that combined sales for Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Electronics and LG Semiconductor will hit their highest levels since 1995. Samsung is estimated to have racked up profits totaling $640 million on sales during 1998 totaling $5.6 billion. Hyundai said March 11 that favorable memory orders had increased sales sharply during the period, with profits totaling $144 million. Hyundai's sales, which included non-semiconductor devices like communications equipment, totaled $3.52 billion, an increase of 29 percent over the previous year. Net profits nevertheless declined by 22 percent. The strong performance was attributed to big reductions in debt/equity ratios over 1997. Hyundai's debt ratio declined to 446 percent at the end of December compared with 668 percent at the end of 1997. LG Semicon recorded a loss of $227 million in 1997, but its debt ratio was lowered to 246 percent by the end of 1998 compared with 486 percent in 1997. The reduction was fueled by a restructuring of LG's businesses, the issuing of new stock and the sale of overseas subsidiaries. LG said it recorded a profit of $138 million in 1998. Overall, semiconductor sales here totaled more than $1.6 billion. >>

To: Ian@SI who wrote (29132)	3/20/1999 11:05:00 AM
From: Tony Viola	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Ian, >>>Wishful thinking, with the XRay reference, and the $700M price tag, it's likely just an R&D facility rather than a strong signal that 300mm is about to fire up.<<< It does sound rather cheap by today's standards, doesn't it? OTOH, maybe things are a lot cheaper in East Fishkill, NY than in Silicon Valley. No, most of the cost would be equipment, wouldn't it. Power PC = test vehicle only for the new process stuff, I don't think it has any market. Tony

To: Ian@SI who wrote (29132)	3/22/1999 3:46:00 PM
From: Math Junkie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Re: <<Wishful thinking, with the XRay reference, and the $700M price tag, it's likely just an R&D facility rather than a strong signal that 300mm is about to fire up.>> You read more into my post than what I wrote. By "starting up", I did not intend to imply production fabs now. People have to do the pioneering work to work out the technical problems first, and the fact that this is, in fact, happening is a positive, IMO. It's a very important and necessary prerequisite for volume production at 300mm.