"Certainly we wouldn't abandon this industry" in Taiwan, which accounts for about 30 percent of global supplies, Siew said yesterday at an American Chamber of Commerce meeting in Taipei, when asked what the government would do to support the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market. "We should take this opportunity to consolidate the industry to become more competitive," he said.

"As for next year, it is possible that the market could post a single-digit or even negative growth," a Samsung spokesman said.

The decision by Samsung to abandon its six-inch, or 150-millimeter, wafer fabrication lines and focus production on its eight-inch and 12-inch wafer lines reflects a desperate attempt to improve the efficiency of its product lineup.

People looked it up so often on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary that the Springfield-based publisher says "bailout" was an easy choice for its annual Word of the Year honor.

The Nikkei business daily said Elpida, the world's No. 3 maker of dynamic random access memory, will need to spend about 4 billion yen ($42 million) to raise its stake in Rexchip Electronics.

Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba is considering delaying construction of two new domestic chip plants amid slowing demand and falling prices, Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday.

Semiconductor equipment companies are using memory semiconductor recession as opportunity to grow further. World economic downturn has hit both local and foreign equipment makers, so local makers believe that if the memory semiconductor market is recovered, only companies that have done their best to cut cost will take the benefit of semiconductor market recovery.

"There is no denying that fundamental weakness in demand is turning from bad to worse," Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Singapore, said in a report today. The outlook for manufacturers in the coming months "will not be a pretty picture."

"In view of the current global financial turmoil we are drawing $400 million under our revolving credit facility. This is a proactive financial decision in order to secure availability of this facility in a turbulent financial market environment," said Karl-Henrik Sundstrom, NXP's chief financial officer, in a statement.

The European Commission Wednesday cleared Swedish mobile telecommunications company Ericsson (ERIC) and STMicroelectronics NV to jointly produce chipsets for mobile phones.

Rambus shares surged for the second straight day Wednesday after the chip maker received a positive pre-trial ruling in California in its patent case against some of the largest semiconductor companies in the world. According to a court document on Rambus's Web site, on Monday a U.S. District judge issued a summary decision in favor of Rambus, saying the chip makers infringed on certain aspects of Rambus's patents. The chipmakers named in the case are Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Nanya Technology and Micron Technology.

The US bank called off talks with Panasonic on a sale of its stake in the Japanese electronics maker, unhappy with Panasonic's bid.

Lam Research has become the latest capital equipment industry company to announce layoffs, this week stating it would cut 600 jobs. The workforce reduction represents approximately 15% of Lam's total headcount and will impact regular, temporary, and contract employee positions, according to an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing made Thursday.

In a report titled "Death by 1000 paper cuts: Cutting estimates and targets on most chip firms," FBR Capital Markets downgraded its estimates for several semiconductor industry companies including AMD, Maxim, and National Semiconductor.

Solar energy industry will receive moderate and no long-lasting impacts from global financial market, said Wang Runsheng, CEO of China's major solar cell producer China Sunergy. As the main driving force of solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, governmental subsidy policies haven't been removed or delayed due to the financial turmoil, said Wang, citing recent solar-favoring legislative adjustment in France.

Rushing to rescue Citigroup, the U.S. government agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions in possible losses and to plow a fresh US$20 billion into the stricken bank. "It would create chaos," said Winson Fong, managing director at SG Asset Management in Hong Kong, which oversees about $3 billion in equities in Asia. "Simply put, you couldn't borrow or lend for a while. This is a nightmare scenario."