What's Happening in High-Tech Supply Chains
Staff -- Purchasing, 1/13/2005
- Intel Corp.'s incoming chief executive plans to focus on desktop personal computers overseas, mobile and wireless applications and digital homes and offices as the centerpiece of the microchip maker's growth strategy. Paul Otellini, who will take Intel's reins next May, says the company's new area of focus will be complete systems targeted at computing. He also wants to expand into the market for consumer electronics, so the company will be looking to add more functions to its chips.
- Philips Electronics now expects a flat global chip market next year. "Up until recently we thought the market was going to increase 5%, but it now looks more like a flat market next year," says Theo Claasen, executive vice-president for technology and strategy at the Dutch company. The chip industry is on track to increase sales by 30% to $200 billion this year, the result of higher prices and strong demand for cameras, cell phones and PCs. But Claasen says high chip inventories at electronics goods makers and more cautious consumer spending will take their toll on producer sales in 2005.
- Researchers at IBM and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. have improved a chip-making technology called strained silicon, boosting semiconductor performance at a time when such gains are increasingly hard to attain. The advance costs little to install in factories and boosts transistor performance by about 12%, compared with current straining technologies. In the process, silicon is chemically stretched or strained, which improves the flow of electrons.
- General Motors has announced plans to invest $510 million in three Flint, Mich. plants. The Flint Engine South plant, which produces GM's advanced global V-6 engine that will power future vehicles, will receive $300 million to pay for its expansion. Some $150 million will be used by GM's Flint truck assembly plant to refurbish the facility and buy new equipment. This plant currently builds the heavy-duty cab version of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups. GM also plans to invest about $60 million in the Flint Metal Center for weld assembly systems, tools and equipment.
- Samsung maintained its dominant position as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) supplier in the third quarter by racking up nearly $2 billion of sales. Micron Technology's $1.07 billion in sales was number two, edging out Hynix Semiconductor ($1.04 billion). Worldwide DRAM revenue in the third quarter increased by 0.7% compared to the second quarter to reach $6.7 billion, according to market researcher iSuppli.
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