(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Semiconductor Sales Fall; SIA, Gov't Team on Research
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August 19, 1998 (BOSTON) -- Global semiconductor sales in June fell 2.2
percent from May and 14.1 percent from the year-ago level, the U.S.
Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said.
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"The instability of the Asian economies continued to take its toll on
global chip sales in June," said George Scalise, president of the SIA.
Still, Asia's problems had little impact on sales in the Americas, which
remains the strongest semiconductor market in the world. Sales in the
Americas were US$3.24 billion in June 1998. That is about US$1 billion
higher than sales in either Japan or the Asia Pacific.
The SIA said it remains optimistic about the industry because of growing
demand for newer and more powerful chips for Internet and other applications.
The quest for new microchip technologies prompted the SIA and the U.S.
government to form a microelectronics Focus Center Research Program.
It will give multi-million U.S dollar R&D; grants to universities to
solve challenging technology problems the industry faces to remain globally
competitive.
The United States may be taking a cue from Taiwan, Japan and Korea, where
government-industry cooperation helped make semiconductor industries
world players.
The program is the most ambitious research project undertaken by the
U.S. semiconductor industry since 1987, when it formed Sematech, a consortium
of U.S. chip makers focused on manufacturing and process technology.
Intel Corp. President Craig Barrett said the focus center program will
help keep U.S. semiconductor firms at the front of the global microelectronics
revolution.
(Lori Valigra, Asia BizTech Correspondent)
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