punkle...
The data given by SEMI is for wafer blanks in various forms, and is hard to translate into demand for chips from the data given - it is more applicable to companies like WFR (MEMC). To make an informed judgement about chip demand, you would need to know how many of the blanks were for each size (300mm, 200mm) and it would be helpful to know into which areas each were shipped. A 4% increase is not very meaningful when given the background information that EOM's were building up inventories in case there were disruptions from the Iraq situation, and information on end demand is much more important.
Always keep in mind that SEMI is a trade organization (the same fine folks that bring us the BtB report every month) so projections such as "utilization will likely improve going forward in 2003" are meaningless and based more on hope than anything else. I doubt many non-members follow this report, but the version given to members has more information in it and is more useful. The same is true of the BtB report, where the members get a more detailed breakdown of the data, such as breaking out front and back end numbers.
Hope that helps.
mlsoft
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