Finance

Japan’s semiconductor industry is investing heavily again after a decade of low spending and retrenchment. There was a 40 per cent growth year in the domestic market last year driven by a surge in the digital consumer sector. “The Japanese semiconductor industry is coming back,” Toshihiko Ono, group president of Fujitsu’s electronics devices business group, told Electronics Weekly, “and the ...

ASML shows profit Dutch lithography maker ASML Holding reported first quarter profits of €21m, a significant increase compared to a year earlier when the company reported a Q1 loss of €82m. The product demand mix, however, favoured the less expensive 248nm systems over 193nm systems for both 200mm and 300mm wafer sizes leading to an average selling price of €8.4m, ...

Analysts’ expectations for semiconductor industry growth this year continue to edge upwards, with US forecaster Instat/MDR predicting a 29 per cent rise this year. Last month the US Semiconductor Industry Association forecast a 19.4 per cent growth year for the industry. Both the US forecasts are behind the prediction of UK forecaster Future Horizons which expects 32.2 per cent growth ...

The UK’s manufacturers are seeing a steady business recovery across the sector despite pressure on export sales from the high value of the pound. According to the CBI’s Quarterly Industrial Trends survey in total orders are increasing at their fastest rate for nine years. The recovery would have been even more marked had the relative strength of the pound, especially ...

Bookham Technology has highlighted a further reduction in overhead costs as it reported first quarter revenues of £22.5m, slightly down from fourth quarter 2003 revenues of £24m, and up 7% from first quarter 2003. The optoelectronic device supplier was hit by the unfavourable dollar/sterling exchange rate. The Oxfordshire-based firm, which is planning to move its HQ and primary stock market ...

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) have revised upwards their forecasts for growth this year. The SIA is now predicting 20 per cent growth and WSTS 25 per cent. Both organisations were encouraged by March 2004 sales of semiconductors which were 32.3 per cent up on March 2003. The $16.28bn worldwide sales for March 2004 ...

The principal motivation for going to a larger wafer size is more bang for the buck; in the case of 300mm vs. 200mm wafers, 2.5 times the bang for the buck. At least that is the theoretical rationale. With the industry scrambling to add capacity and a number of new fabs coming online, this begs the question: Will the move ...

Europe’s two largest semiconductor companies, STMicroelectronics and Infineon Technologies, are expecting an excellent year with the market growing, prices increasing and margins improving. ST’s CEO, Pasquale Pistorio, is expecting second quarter revenues to increase by between six and twelve per cent compared to Q1, and this would translate into a year-on-year growth of between 26 per cent and 33 per ...

Recently liberated from the big company environment, Japan’s independent semiconductor manufacturers are taking on a new management style. During the Japanese semiconductor industry’s re-organisation in the first years of this decade, three independent semiconductor manufacturers have been established in Japan: Elpida, the amalgamation of the DRAM-making operations of Hitachi and NEC; Renesas Technology, the amalgamation of the semiconductor businesses of ...

While many market indicators show the semiconductor industry returning to health, NEC Electronics saw sales drop for its financial year, even though net income increased, showing strong internal management. Net sales for the year ending March 31 fell to $6.5bn (711.9bn yen) which was a drop of 1.8 per cent from last year’s $6.6bn (725bn yen). However, net income for ...