“Worldwide semiconductor sales in April reached the highest monthly level since July 2000,” says SIA President George Scalise. “Continued strong overall economic growth in the United States and China helped propel chip sales upward. The fundamentals are in place for strong growth through the remainder of the year, last fall’s forecast of 19 percent growth.”

(June 2, 2004) Taipei, Taiwan&#8212Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), the world’s largest independent provider of semiconductor packaging and testing services, has completed the acquisition of packaging and testing operation in Takahata, Yamagata from NEC Electronics Corp. ASE and NEC Electronics also signed a 4-year service agreement for ASE to provide IC backend manufacturing services to NEC Electronics.