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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (4284)	3/20/1999 10:14:00 AM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4697

Peter, according Wacker's top guy, the wafers producers are currently working at 62% capacity, even if you assume that the total Si real estate increased by 30% next year, you would still be operating at only 83% capacity. That may create some local shortage but certainly not industry wide shortages. You also have to take into account that a lot of DRAM production is going down to sub .25 micron features reducing the amount of real estate required per "bit". I would guess that the optimistic number of 70% increase in bit counts for this year over next year is probably not translating to much more than a 20% to 30% increase in that segment's demand for "real estate". It seems to me that we will need another year before we start and feel "tightness" in the wafer market. Zeev