August 1, 2007 – Photronics Inc. says 3Q07 sales will be 6%-14% below previous projections to a range of $101-$103 million, due to a shortfall in photomask orders from FPD and European semiconductor customers.

End markets for FPD have improved with demand for larger monitors and televisions, the company noted, but its customers are still working through cost reduction and productivity enhancement efforts and have not released new designs from their development pipeline, though they should start doing so by year’s end, according to CEO Michael Luttati, in a statement.

Also, demand by photomasks is being negatively impacted by realignment of semiconductor makers in Europe, who are realigning their next-generation process work into other industry collaborative efforts.

Luttati noted that the company’s typically short visibility window (since it carries minimal backlog) is worsened by “rapidly changing market factors,” and the company’s financial performance should see continued volatility “over the next few quarters.”