Global high-tech industries will
start heating up in the second half of 2012, with the semiconductor
sector to trigger the business rebound driven by demand for mobile
applications, said president Erix Yu for Applied Materials Taiwan, while
commenting on the existing oversupply problems in most end markets the
company serves.
Both panel and solar sectors, however,
will be struggling to recover due to more severe oversupply situations
in the markets, Yu indicated. Taking Applied's orders in its fiscal
fourth quarter as an example, orders for display equipment fell as much
as 90% while those for the solar segment declined over 70%, Yu revealed.
Industry
observers generally have a pessimistic view towards the business
outlook for the solar PV and TFT-LCD industries in 2012, given the
challenging market conditions.
Applied is currently the
world's largest equipment supplier to the semiconductor, TFT-LCD and
solar PV industries. In fiscal year 2011, the fab tool vendor achieved
record revenues of US$10.5 billion despite a general economic slowdown
and weak end product markets.
In other news, the global
equipment industry continues to be more consolidated through
acquisitions. Lam Research earlier this month announced plans to acquire
Novellus Systems. In November, Applied Materials completed its
acquisition of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates.
Erix Yu, president of Applied Materials Taiwan
Photo: Josephine Lien, Digitimes, December 2011
Photo: Josephine Lien, Digitimes, December 2011
|
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire