Foundry fever? (Editor's Note).

Electronic Business Asia, December, 2001 by Pereira, Mario

China appears to hold the elixir of the semiconductor equipment world despite the severe semiconductor market downturn. A case in point is the $200 million order placed by Shanghai foundry startup Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp with Applied Materials for multiple dielectric and conductor etch, chemical vapor deposition and other inspection/metrology systems.

While China bodes well for tool OEMs, as the country expects to dramatically increase semiconductor-related capital spending in the coming years from $1.2 billion in 2001 to roughly $5 billion by 2005, the same cannot be said for the rest of Asia. Weakness in the global communications market has pushed down both demand and the ASP per wafer at United Microelectronics Corp, writes Drew Wilson,...

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