Tokyo Electron's January to March Orders Rose, Company Says
By Minoru Matsutani and Yoshifumi Takemoto
quote.bloomberg.com
Tokyo, April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electron Ltd.'s orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment rose in the January to March period, the first gain in five quarters as chipmakers tooled up in preparation for a rebound in demand.
Tokyo Electron, second only to Applied Materials Inc. in chipmaking equipment, received 75.6 billion yen ($582 million) in net orders -- new orders minus cancellations -- in the three-month period, up 29 percent from 58 billion yen a year earlier, Kazuya Nanbu, a Tokyo Electron spokesman said in an interview.
In the fiscal fourth quarter, the company received 84.5 billion yen worth of new orders and cancellations totaling 8.9 billion yen, he said. Chip equipment accounts for more than three quarters of Tokyo Electron's total revenue.
Global chipmakers, except for the Japanese, are increasing investment in new equipment on the back of brisk earnings.
Samsung Electronics Co., currently the biggest computer- memory-chip maker, posted record net profit in the quarter. Samsung raised its planned capital spending for chips, liquid- crystal displays and other electronics by half to 4.55 trillion won ($3.49 billion) this year. Spending on chips and flat panels accounts for all the extra investment. |
