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Infineon set for record sales despite market fears

Semiconductor biz isn't slumping... yet

Chip company Infineon poo-poo'd rumours of a downturn in the world semiconductor market today, when it reiterated its claim that it expects the current fiscal quarter to break previous records.

"We have said many times in recent weeks that we don't see any weakness in the overall semiconductor industry," company spokeswoman Katja Schlendorf said, cited by Reuters. "We have already said that our fourth quarter will be a record in earnings and sales and will be better than the first quarter, which was [also] a record."

And Infineon will see growth above the industry average throughout 2000 and 2001, she pledged.

Infineon's comments follow this week's slide in chip company share prices across the world's stock exchanges on fears the current boom in the semiconductor industry may soon turn to bust.

Certainly many of the industry's big players are currently predicting record quarters, and while Intel made a profit and revenue warning recently, that's more likely to be the result of internal problems, such as the difficulty it appears to be having getting the Pentium 4 out of the door, than a dip in demand for other semiconductor products.

A slump is on the way, according to market researcher Dataquest, but it's not expected for another couple of years. Until then, demand will fuel increased growth throughout the chip biz. Dataquest reckons the chip industry will make sales of $231.6 billion this year, up 36.9 per cent on 1999. It's forecasting 27.5 per cent growth during 2001, which still values the industry at nearly $300 billion. ®

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