Tokyo Electron, Other Chip-Equipment Makers May Slump (Update3)
By Minoru Matsutani
quote.bloomberg.com
Tokyo, March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electron Ltd., the world's best-performing stock this year of a company valued at more than $10 billion, may decline because investors expect orders to rebound only gradually from a four-year low.
Shares in the world's second-biggest chip equipment maker gained 51 percent in the year to today's open -- while rivals Advantest Corp. and Nikon Corp. rose more than 40 percent -- on expectations that chipmakers will buy more machines to prepare for a rebound in demand for personal computers and mobile phones.
There's little evidence of that. Intel Corp., the biggest chipmaker and the largest buyer of chip equipment, said it plans to cut investment this year. So did Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. Chip sales, which fell 40 percent in January, won't pick up this quarter, the Semiconductor Industry Association said last week.
``Chip equipment orders seem to be recovering, but that's not enough to justify the recent rally,'' said Koji Sakuratani, a fund manager at Asahi Life Asset Management Co., which manages about 1.5 trillion yen ($11.7 billion) in Japanese equities, including Tokyo Electron. ``I am afraid prices will fall soon.''
Global orders for Japanese-made chip-making equipment fell for the 13th month in January, plunging 74 percent to 30.8 billion yen. Machine orders in Japan tumbled a record in the month as companies such as Sanyo Electric Corp. said they have idle capacity left over after expanding too fast. |
