Global chip equipment Oct sales down 12.2 pct y/y
Wed Dec 14, 2005 03:02 AM ET
TOKYO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Global sales of microchip equipment fell for a ninth straight month in October, but a recovery trend in demand for tools to make and test semiconductors is likely to have remained intact, an industry group said on Wednesday.
October sales fell 12.2 percent from a year earlier to $2.57 billion, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) said.
Although the decline expanded slightly from 10.9 percent in September, October's slide was far smaller than the 29.1 percent tumble in June and the 21 percent fall in July, indicating demand remained on a recovery track, an SEAJ spokesman said.
The SEAJ compiles the monthly data with another industry group, California-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
SEMI said last week that chip equipment sales were estimated to fall 11.2 percent in 2005, hit by a cyclical downturn in the semiconductor industry.
It said, however, sales would likely rise 9.1 percent in 2006, followed by two years of double-digit growth as chip makers invest aggressively in advanced production plants, brightening the outlook for major chip equipment makers such as Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Advantest Corp. (6857.T: Quote, Profile, Research) .
Following are October chip equipment sales figures (in million dollars, with percentage change from year earlier in parentheses):
Value year/year
Japan 682.645 (+4.6)
N. America 529.493 (+2.9)
Europe 255.571 (-6.4)
S. Korea 309.110 (+1.6)
Taiwan 419.895 (-45.6)
China 121.906 (-20.8)
Others 255.137 (-1.9)
OVERALL 2,573.758 (-12.2) |
