N.A. tool bookings drop, billings rise in July
10/01/2002
BUSINESS TRENDS
North American toolmakers posted $1.15 billion in orders in July and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.16, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi).
The $1.15 billion in bookings is 2% below the revised June 2002 level of $1.17 billion, yet 50% above the $769 million in orders posted in July 2001.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in July 2002 was $995 million — 7% above the revised June 2002 level of $927 million and 17% below the July 2001 billings level of $1.19 billion.
Global chip sales also increased in July, reaching $11.7 billion, a 2.9% increase over the June level of $11.4 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
On a year-to-year basis, chip sales in July were up 8% from the $10.8 billion in revenue recorded in July 2001, the first year-over-year increase since February 2001.
On a regional basis, Japan — once again the fastest growing market due to higher demand for digital consumer products — recorded an 8.5% increase in chip sales in July. The Asia Pacific market registered 2.3% growth, as the strength of consumer electronics and demand for wireless handsets outweighed continuing weakness in the PC sector. Chip sales in the Americas and Europe were essentially flat, reflecting weak PC demand in both markets, and continued outsourcing to the Asia Pacific region.
In other industry news, VLSI Research Inc.'s July Industry Pulse Pro showed that frontend capacity utilization totaled 84.2%, down from the revised number of 86.5% in June. That number is projected to drop to 81.9% in August, rise to 82.3% in September, and then hit 86.3% in October, according to VLSI. USA
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USA
Novellus Systems Inc. and SpeedFam-IPEC Inc. have signed a definitive agreement in which Novellus will acquire all outstanding shares of SpeedFam-IPEC in a stock-for-stock merger. The transaction is valued at approximately $220 million. With this acquisition, Novellus will enter the CMP systems market. SpeedFam-IPEC will become a new product group for Novellus. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of both companies and is expected to formally close in 4Q02.
Microchip Technology Inc., Chandler, AZ, has signed an agreement to acquire a manufacturing complex in Gresham, OR, from Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. for $183.5 million in cash. Initial hiring is expected to reach some 60 people during the pre-production phases. Over time, Microchip plans to employ some 360 people. The facility is capable of producing process technologies down to 0.13µm and to support more than $1 billion in annual sales at full capacity.
DuPont, Wilmington, DE, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ChemFirst Inc., Jackson, MS, a global supplier of electronic chemicals and materials. The cash transaction is valued at $408 million. ChemFirst had FY01 sales of $278 million, and has approximately 480 employees and primary manufacturing facilities in Pascagoula, MI, Baytown, TX, Dayton, OH, and Hayward, CA, with operations in Scotland and Japan.
Tegal Corp., Petaluma, CA, a designer and manufacturer of plasma etch systems, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sputtered Films Inc., a privately held manufacturer of sputtering equipment for thin film deposition. The acquisition, for 1.5 million shares of Tegal's common stock plus a performance-based future cash earnout, was expected to be completed before fall.
Rudolph Technologies Inc., Flanders, NJ, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held ISOA, Richardson, TX, a defect control company. The transaction is valued at $27.5 million. ISOA will maintain its offices in Richardson, and will become the yield metrology group of Rudolph's Ledgewood, NJ, facility.
FEI Co. has purchased a new Oregon campus to consolidate its local operations and to provide room for expansion. The 27-acre campus features two buildings: one with 68,000 ft2 for offices and one with 112,000 ft2 for R&D and manufacturing. It will include semiconductor cleanroom space and facilities, as well as demo labs. FEI's total investment in the new location will be approximately $23 million. The new campus was previously owned by Tokyo Electron Ltd.
Busch Semiconductor Vacuum Group recently won a Supplier Excellence Award (SEA) from Texas Instruments for its performance in 2001. The company is a major dry pump and service provider for TI fabs. Derek Shields, Busch Vacuum's president of global operations, accepted the award in a ceremony at the company's headquarters in Morgan Hill, CA.
AsiaFocus
Mykrolis Corp., Billerica, MA, a supplier of liquid and gas delivery systems, is constructing a product service center in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, Pudong, Shanghai, PRC. Scheduled to open in September, the facility includes sales offices, a customer service center, a pre-wetting liquid filter station, and a Class 100 cleanroom for the calibration of mass flow controllers.
In an effort to develop unification of design and manufacturing technologies for the next generation of semiconductors in Japan, 11 member companies from the semiconductor executive committee of the Japan Electric and Information Technology Industries Assoc. have established Advanced SoC Platform Corp. (ASPLA).
The specific mission of ASPLA is to develop and verify core technologies for the design and manufacture of next-generation 90nm semiconductor devices.
Mitsubishi Corp., Tokyo, Japan, will begin to produce carbon nanotubes by 2004. Mitsubishi will set up a new company by the end of December, although the company has yet to decide on total investment dollars, its production capacity, or other details. The new company would develop a means of mass producing two-layered carbon nanotubes.
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EuroFocus
ASM International NV, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, said its subsidiary, ASM America Inc., will team up with Accurel Systems International, a provider of advanced surface materials and failure analysis services, to open a secondary ion mass spectrometry lab on ASM's Phoenix, AZ, campus. Accurel will provide on-site advanced SIMS support for the development of ASM's Epsilon reactor.
Chipmaker STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, and Taiwanese chip foundry UMC, Taipei, have extended their manufacturing relationship by signing a multiyear agreement, which also includes cooperation on manufacturing science. Cooperation between the two companies will include common work on manufacturing enhancement and defect reduction (facility, equipment, and automation), product characterization and yield enhancement, and quality assurance.
Infineon Technologies, Munich, Germany, and Actel Corp., Sunnyvale, CA, have agreed to develop flash memory FPGA solutions 0.13µm chip processes. The program will extend this technology's capability.
In the July article "Organic VPD shows promise for OLED volume production," Max Shtein should have been listed as a primary author. He is a PhD candidate in chemical engineering at Princeton University.