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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: etchmeister who wrote (14948)	5/13/2005 8:46:31 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Tokyo Electron FY04 net profit up on cost cuts, strong sales, writebacks 05.12.2005, 05:37 AM TOKYO (AFX) - Tokyo Electron Ltd said its net profit surge 642 pct in the year to March 2005 (FY04), buoyed by cost cutting and robust sales of its products for making semiconductors and flat display panels. For the year, the world's second largest maker of semiconductor chip and FPD making equipment, reported net profit of 61.6 bln yen from 8.3 bln the year earlier. Current profit meanwhile soared 210.1 pct to 65.6 bln yen and operating profit rose 187.2 pct to 63.98 bln yen. Revenue rose 20.0 pct to 635.7 bln yen. The net earnings were also boosted by a write-back of past provisions, totalling 27.9 bln yen. In the year to March 2006 the company expects current profit to decline to 61 bln yen and operating profit to 60 bln, with revenue seen falling to 610 bln yen due to continued inventory adjustments among chip and FPD makers. In the past year, global sales of products for making chips and flat panel displays rose 44 pct, led by a 133 pct jump in sales to China. 'Sales of our chipmaking and flat-panel-display-making products were brisk, especially in Asia, including Japan,' Yukio Saeki, director of the company's accounting department, told a news conference. In South East Asia, sales jumped 121 pct from a year earlier, while sales in Taiwan expanded by 75 pct and were up 48 pct in South Korea. But as chipmakers and FDP makers moved to adjust inventory levels earlier this year, new orders received in the fourth quarter March fell by 11 pct from a year earlier. And as the company looked to fill backlog orders in the absence of new ones, backlog orders fell to 232.1 bln yen at the end of March from 274.6 bln yen a year earlier. But company vice-president Yoshiteru Harada said the annualised downturn in new orders was not as severe as earlier feared. 'Prior to the start of the fourth quarter, we had braced for a much more serious downturn,' Harada said, adding: 'But as some chipmakers resumed their placement of new orders, the orders did not fall (year-on-year) as much as we had feared.' On a quarterly basis new orders received in the three months to March actually rose to 130.8 bln yen, up from 112.1 bln yen in the previous three months. 'In the first quarter to June, new orders are likely to come in at 110-130 bln yen, with some upside possibility,' Harada said. 'We think the downtrend (year-on-year) of new orders bottomed out in the third quarter, although it is not yet clear.' In the fourth quarter to March, net profit jumped to 46.9 bln yen from 13.4 bln yen in the third and current profit recovered to 27.2 bln yen from 17.4 bln.