ValueBuddies.com : Value Investing Forum - Singapore, Hong Kong, U.S.

Asia-Pacific to Dominate IC Sales Across System Categories in 2015
Europe forecast to remain largest regional market for auto ICs, but Asia-Pacific gaining fast. 

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 by IC Insights
http://www.icinsights.com/data/articles/...ts/816.pdf
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pure-Play Foundry Sales Forecast to Surpass $12.0 Billion in 4Q15
Atypical 2015 sales pattern, but stronger growth forecast to resume in second half of this year. 

AUGUST 27, 2015 by IC Insights
http://www.icinsights.com/data/articles/...ts/815.pdf
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SEMICON Taiwan 2015: Inotera, Applied and HMI positive about semi industry outlook
Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 2 September 2015]
Inotera Memories, Applied Materials and Hermes Microvision (HMI) are all positive about the prospects of the global semiconductor industry although they have different views about short-term market trends.
During the SEMICON Taiwan 2015 (September 2-4) pre-show press conference, Inotera president Scott Meikle remarked that the DRAM industry over the past several years has been a major force behind the worldwide semiconductor equipment market growth. DRAM makers have been engaged in process technology transitions as well as the establishment of new production capacity.
DRAM makers will have to enhance their cost structure in order to be more competitive, Meikle noted. Inotera is looking to migrate to 1Xnm process in 2016 which will further lower the company's manufacturing costs and improve its cost structure, Meikle said.
Erix Yu, group VP with Applied Materials and country president of Applied Materials in Taiwan, commented that demand for semiconductor equipment is set to grow robustly as chipmakers are set to migrate to 10nm production while NAND flash suppliers are stepping up the development of their 3D products.
Yu also raised concerns that consumers demand products with higher performance but lower prices, while the costs for producing such products will be a lot higher.
Also at the event, HMI chairman Hsu Chin-Yung indicated that some chipmakers have slowed their expansion and technology transition pace due to a less-optimistic outlook for demand. However, chipmakers in China are aggressive about transitioning to more-advanced process technologies, Hsu suggested.
HMI provides e-beam inspection tools and solutions for foundry and memory fabs worldwide.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150902PD200.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Does a Chinese bid for GloFo make sense?
September 02, 2015 // Peter Clarke

http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/en/do...5921&vID=8
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fabs Seeking Higher Quality Electronic Materials to Meet Technology Demands

http://semimd.com/materials-matters/2015...y-demands/
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With silicon pushed to its limits, what will power the next electronics revolution?
Posted: Aug 27, 2015
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-n...=41153.php
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nanotech Hub Targets 7nm, Beyond
Jessica Lipsky
8/27/2015 
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327492
_____________________________________________________

SIA WHITE PAPER: FACTS ABOUT SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING 

Posted by Falan Yinug, Director, Industry Statistics and Economic Policy on Aug 27, 2015 

A newly published SIA white paper affirms that U.S. semiconductor companies do the majority of their manufacturing in the United States, and semiconductors are one of America’s top manufactured exports, behind only aircraft and automobiles.................................................. 

http://blog.semiconductors.org/blog/sia-...ufacturing

http://www.semiconductors.org/clientuplo...posted.pdf
___________________________________________________

Equipment Spending Slows but Still Positive in 2015 and 2016

SAN JOSE, Calif. ─ September 9, 2015 ─ Front End fab equipment spending (including new, used, and in-house) is projected to increase 5.0 percent in 2015 (to US$ 37.0 billion) and another 6.6 percent in 2016 (to $39.4 billion) according to most recent edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast.  SEMI data indicates that some companies still plan to increase equipment spending in the second half of 2015, compared to the first half.....................

http://www.semi.org/en/node/57901?id=highlights
______________________________________________________

TSMC posts decreased August revenues

MOPS; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 10 September 2015]

Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has announced consolidated revenues of NT$67.04 billion (US$2.06 billion) for August 2015, down 17% on month and 3% on year.

TSMC's revenues for July and August totaled NT$147.99 billion. The company estimated previously that revenues for third-quarter 2015 would reach NT$207-210 billion representing sequential growth of 0.8-2.2%.

TSMC's cumulative 2015 revenues through August came to NT$575.47 billion, rising 23.6% from a year earlier...............................

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150910PM200.html
_____________________________________________________

Companies Maximize 300mm, 200mm Wafers; Slow Progress on 450mm
Installed capacity, number of 300mm fabs increasing through 2019. 

11 Sept 2015, By IC Insights

http://www.icinsights.com/data/articles/...ts/820.pdf
_____________________________________________________

SEMI Reports Second Quarter 2015 Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Figures; Billings US$9.4 Billion

SAN JOSE, Calif. — September 14, 2015 — SEMI, the global industry association for companies that supply manufacturing technology and materials to the world’s chip makers, today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$9.4 billion in the second quarter of 2015. The billings figure is 1 percent lower than the first quarter of 2015 and 2 percent lower than the same quarter a year ago. The data is gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from over 100 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.
Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were $10.2 billion in the second quarter of 2015. The figure is 2 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago and 6 percent higher than the bookings figure for the first quarter of 2015.
The quarterly billings data by region in billions of U.S. dollars, quarter-over-quarter growth and year-over-year rates by region are as follows:...........................................

http://www.semi.org/en/node/57956
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TSMC secures A10 chip orders from Apple, says report
Commercial Times; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 14 September 2015]
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will be the exclusive supplier of Apple's next-generation A10 processors with volume production to kick off starting March 2016, according to a recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
TSMC will offer its in-house developed backend integrated fan-out (InFO) wafer-level packaging for the production of the A10 chips, which will be built using the foundry's 16nm FinFET process technology, said the report, which cited unspecified Apple suppliers as its source. The A10 will be featured in the iPhone 7 series slated for launch during the third and fourth quarters of 2016.
In addition, TSMC with its 16nm process has obtained half of Apple's total A9 chip orders, the report quoted the sources as indicating. The just-announced iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are all powered by the application processor.
TSMC said it does not comment on speculation about customers and orders.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150914PD210.html
_______________________________________________________________________________

Having just finally upgraded the HDD on my laptop to a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SolidStateDrive (based on 3DNand) from a 7200RPM HDD on my laptop for just $150, there is a massive speed increase in load times and other tasks. The SSD i added to my expansion slot was also tiny despite the 250GB size, like half the size of a credit card, and very flat, just like a memory card. Windows 8.1 on my system takes around half a minute to fully load.

In the very near future, with mobile computing on the rise, probably most laptops/ mobiles will be adopting this technology and do away completely with the larger, very much slower and power hungry HDDs given that TTF (time to failure) for SSDs is starting to get better and catching up with that of HDDs. Cost per GB is also dropping at a good pace.

Heard the lastest earnings call for AMAT and it seems business at AMAT is still pretty ok especially with 3dNand related,  orders for their new Centris™ Sym3™ Etch launched last month are increasing at a very fast pace from 16 units shipped this q2 ramping up to 450 chambers shipped by q1 2016 and customers are ramping up capacity for 3DNAND pretty quickly. AMAT is getting more and more market share as well. Their foundry products business sounds so so though, but hopefully next year 10nm will ramp up and they will get more orders in that segment.

So despite their recent drop in share price, business fundamentals for AMAT still sounds pretty ok and may not boom but doesn't sounds too bad. This should filter down quite well to UMS.

A cost of $150, for a 250G SSD, is impressive. The capacity and price of the SSD, has gone down significantly. Personal usage of HDD is diminishing, and left only enterprise customers

views still seem positive about the industry...but i have friends who are working in various local semicon companies, all I hear from the 'yumcha' sessions are, "no bonus", "factory shut down", "clear leave"..

(17-09-2015, 02:00 PM)jjlim84 Wrote: [ -> ]views still seem positive about the industry...but i have friends who are working in various local semicon companies, all I hear from the 'yumcha' sessions are, "no bonus", "factory shut down", "clear leave"..

possibly its the move of production facilities to other asian countries like Vietnam/Malaysia/Thailand. High labour cost and expiration of tax incentives are also possibly motivators of relocation. A similar situation of closing of older fabs in Japan is happening as well. All the production is now moving to Taiwan and Korea.

So long you still see people lining up and splashing big money on the latest iPhones and Tablets, the industry should still be stable and profitable. Looking at the August Book to bill its 1.02 which is not too bad as well. Considering other sectors are seeing a sustained downtrend, being stable with low growth or sideways would be considered something quite good..