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With economic recovery uncertain, SanDisk has made a ‘tactical assumption,’ according to CFO Judy Bruner at an investor conference today, that the recovery in the world economy will not occur in 2010. Accordingly, the NAND flash memory supplier will cut capital spending to US$900 million in 2009 and reduce its workforce in the current fourth quarter by 10% to preserve cash. Read more >>

Samsung Electronics said at an investor conference that capital expenditures for 2009 would be significantly reduced in the face of weak demand and poor economic outlook. Giving guidance on CapEx, investor relations executive Chu Woo-sik said that spending could be reduced by as much as 30% in 2009, approximately US$4.84 billion, down from approximately US$6.9 billion in 2008. The executive said that the upper range of spending could be approximately US$5.5 billion. However, a final figure had yet to be reached and changes could be made, inferring that a lower range could be set, depending on market conditions. Read more >>

AMD the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC)  and Mubadala Development Company have changed certain aspects of the agreement made in October, 2008 that will see AMD’s share in The Foundry Company reduced to 34.2%, compared to the original 44.4% share holding. ATIC originally owned 55.6% holding but will now own 65.8% of the new foundry. The transactions covered by the amended agreements are expected to close at the beginning of 2009. Changes have also been made to the value of the manufacturing assets AMD is contributing, which have been reduced from a multiplier of 1.13x to 0.85x of the net book value of the assets.  The net asset valuation multiple on future capital calls of the foundry will be reduced from 1.1x to 0.9x. Read more >>

Hynix Semiconductor is facing a cash crisis as losses deepened to over 1.4 trillion won in 2008, approximately US$972 million, in the first three quarters of the year. The company also face repayments on maturing loans in 2009 that have been estimated at over US$500 million. Hynix is estimated to currently have cashable assets of approximately US$1.2 billion. However, losses are expected to climb above 3Q08 figures of approximately US$300 million in both 4Q08 and 1Q09, significantly eroding its cash balance, which does not include capital expenditure requirements for 2009. Read more >>

According to TSMC, approximately 410 suppliers to the company attended its seventh annual Supply Chain Management Forum, which had the theme of ‘Striving for Supply Chain Excellence’ and focused on new technology development, innovative cost reduction and supply chain efficiency. As part of the forum, TSMC announced its 2008 supplier awards which saw equipment honors for EBARA Corporation (CMP equipment), Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates (Ion Implanters), Hitachi Kokusai Electric (Thermal Furnaces) and Novellus Systems (CVD tools). Materials supply honors went to Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) for photoresists and Cabot Microelectronics for CMP pads and slurries.

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SEMI has painted an uncharacteristically gloomy picture of semiconductor equipment sales in 2008 and 2009 that slightly exceeds projections from independent market research firms such as Gartner Dataquest and VLSI Research. SEMI has projected sales to reach $30.91 billion in 2008, a decline of almost 28%, compared to 2007. The trade association is also projecting a further decline in equipment sales of 21% for 2009. Read more >>

The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) has released its forecasts for 2008 and 2009. The global semiconductor market is expected to grow 2.5% on an annualized basis to $261.9 billion in 2008, which have been revised downwards 0.7 percentage points compared to the forecast that WSTS had issued in May, 2008. The fall is due to weaker than expected sales in the fourth quarter, WSTS said. Read more >>

Worldwide October semiconductor sales declined by 2.4 percent in October to US$22.5 billion compared to sales of US$23.0 billion in October 2007, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). October sales were 2.1 percent lower than the US$23.0 billion in September 2008. The SIA noted that if memory products were excluded from the figures, sales would have seen a 3.8 percent rise in October, 2008 compared to the same month last year. Read more >>

Qimonda AG has said that it will delay the release of its fourth quarter financial results until mid-December, 2008 as discussions with third parties are at a critical stage regarding the future of the company. Qimonda warned that with its gross cash position of €432 million, it faced a liquidity crisis in the coming quarter and could become insolvent should discussions with third parties fail to result in an improvement to its financial position. Read more >>

Elpida Memory, Inc. has finalized its acquisition of Rexchip Electronics Corp. as its subsidiary via the purchase of a portion of its strategic partner’s shares. Elpida set up the Rexchip joint venture with its partner Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. in November 2006, and this recent move will see the acquisition of Rexchip as a subsidiary of Elpida as it increases its share portion from 48.8% to 52%. The move is claimed to be a result of the “prolonged slump” in DRAM market prices, and the resulting strategic move on the part of Elpida is geared to serve to better its supply-demand balance. Read more >>