Japan

06/01/1998

Japan

Weak orders for Japanese tool vendors. Japanese equipment companies logged total January orders (including exports) of 87.7 billion yen ($681 million), 31.4% below year-ago levels, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan. This is the second consecutive month of declining orders; the trend was blamed on South Korean chipmakers` broad pullback, and reduced spending by Japanese companies. Sales were 93.2 billion yen ($723 million), resulting in a book-to-bill of 0.94.

In an effort to align itself for growth in the CMP market, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (MMC), Tokyo, Japan, has formed a new semiconductor manufacturing equipment division as part of an overall restructuring, and is targeting about $90 million in revenues for the division this year. US-based CMP unit Cybeq Nano Technologies, San Jose, CA, and robotics firm Cybeq Systems, Sunnyvale, CA, have initially been targeted as units of the division. MMC`s Ikuno Plant, which is Cybeq`s CMP equipment counterpart in Japan, will also be considered part of the new division.

Oki, a second-tier Japanese supplier, has indicated it will reduce new FY spending by 40%, to about 20 billion yen ($157 million), according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The statement came as part of an announcement of a shift in focus away from memories (which now account for about half Oki`s semiconductor business) and toward system LSI devices. Oki is a relatively small firm, but the magnitude of the spending cut could be a harbinger of how other chipmakers plan to manage their investing.

Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan, plans to build a new plant in Taga, Shiga Prefecture, to produce semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Capital investment in the plant is roughly $55 million. Dainippon currently produces coater/developers, scrubbers, and wet stations at its Rakusai Plant in Kyoto and Yasu and Hikone Plants in Shiga.

Tokyo`s Fujitsu and Sony Corp. are teaming up to develop system LSIs beginning next year at Fujitsu`s Mie Plant. The joint development work will initially see production of 0.18-?m system LSIs beginning in 1999. The two companies, which reached an agreement in principle for the deal earlier this year, are also planning to jointly develop 0.13-?m system LSI chips at either Fujitsu`s Process & Device Development Divisions in the Mie Plant, near Nagoya, or Sony`s ULSI R&D Labs in Atsugi, near Tokyo.

Due to weak chip market conditions, Tokuyama Corp. is postponing start-up of a new plant to produce polycrystal silicone by six months, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. The project, when completed, will increase the firm`s polycrystal silicone production by 50%.