05.30.2001
Semiconductor industry continues to loll in the doldrums

• At UMC's (2303 'Lian Dian') Technology Forum yesterday, the company reiterated its pessimistic view on the short-term outlook of the industry. The company foresees only a very slight sequential uptick in 2H01, but nothing significant. Meanwhile, industry sources indicate that there should be no further decline in fab utilization in May.

• Macronix (2337 'Wang Hong') says May revenue will grow slightly from April. Macronix's June and 2H01 revenue should pick up substantially on the back of orders from Nintendo for parts for its GameCube console and game cartridges, mainly 4Mb flash cards, 16Mb ROM, clock generator logic ICs, joy stick controllers and wireless pad controllers.

• The DRAM price has continued falling, to US$1.1 on 64Mb and US$2.3 on 128Mb SDRAM currently. The transaction price on 128Mb DDR DRAM is said to be as low as US$3.5-4 in Taiwan. However, we are hearing sharply different viewpoints from DRAM makers. ProMOS (5387 'Mao De') does not see pricing gaining strength until 2002 while Powerchip (5346 'Li Jing') is now much less confident about industry turnaround in 2H01, abandoning its previously bullish stance.

LindaLiu@Primasia.com +886-[0]2-2547-8867