TOKYO, Jan 15 - Sales of Japanese equipment used to make microchips are likely to post their second straight year of double-digit growth next year, bolstered by computer memory demand, an industry group said on Monday.
But the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) also said it expected sales for Japanese tools used to make flat-panel displays to fall 25 percent next business year, reversing its previous estimate of 10 percent growth.
Sales of Japanese chip gear are projected to rise 10.5 percent to 2.03 trillion yen (US$17 billion) in the year starting 1 April, down from a July forecast of 12 percent growth, the association said.
The latest projection comes as chip makers look to the 30 January launch of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system as a driver of new demand.
PC makers like Dell, Lenovo Group and Sony have announced the release of new models equipped with Vista.
The SEAJ also raised its chip equipment sales projection for the current year to March to 1.84 trillion yen, a 21 percent rise from the previous year and a record high.
"We see no sign of orders weakening, contrary to expectations of demand slackening after a big surge in November and December," SEAJ spokesman Toshihisa Kuno said.
Last month, Japan's Elpida Memory and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. said they would spend up to US$15.5 billion in a joint venture to make DRAM memory chips used in PCs, while market leader Samsung Electronics earlier said it plans to nearly double DRAM output in 2007.
OVERSUPPLY IN LCD
Sales for Japanese tools used to make liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are expected to fall to 434.9 billion yen. That compares with estimated sales of 579.9 billion yen in the current business year to March, up 10 percent from the year-ago period.
"We had a rush of orders last year, and now we're seeing the pull-back in response to steep price falls and a sense of oversupply," Kuno said.
"But demand for LCDs is still strong, and we expect LCD equipment sales to make double-digit growth in fiscal 2008," he said.
Japanese suppliers of chip- and LCD-making equipment include Tokyo Electron, Canon, Nikon and Dainippon Screen Manufacturing.
Separately, the association and California-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) said global sales of tools used to make microchips worldwide in November rose 23.5 percent from a year earlier to US$2.75 billion, led by gains in North America and South Korea.
Chip gear makers outside Japan include Applied Materials and Lam Research.
Following are November chip gear sales figures (in million dollars, year-on-year percentage change in parentheses):
Value year/year
Japan 605.062 ( +5.5)
N. America 499.136 (+56.7)
Europe 209.382 (-23.6)
S. Korea 529.802 (+43.7)
Taiwan 528.494 (+38.4)
China 146.525 (+48.2)
Other 229.953 (+10.1)
TOTAL 2,748.354 (+23.5)
