Business

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.97 in August, staying below 1, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Toshiba Corp. and partner SanDisk Corp. have opened the second phase of Fab 5, which began fabricating 15nm NAND memories this month, and started construction on schedule of the new Fab 2 at Yokkaichi Operations, Toshiba’s NAND Flash memory plant in Mie prefecture, Japan.

United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. announced at the end of last month an agreement whereby the Taiwanese foundry will become a minority shareholder in the Japanese firm, in what appears to be the last in a series of moves to reorganize the major fabs of Japanese chipmakers. Highlights of the recent round of restructuring have included Sony's acquisition of Renesas' 300mm fab, Panasonic's sale of its principal fabs to TowerJazz, and the establishment of an SoC design JV by Fujitsu and Panasonic.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.94 in July, back below 1 again, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Renesas Electronics Corp., now in the midst of restructuring, has reported first-quarter business results superior to the forecast it announced in May. Renesas CEO Hisao Sakuta, who has been in charge since June 2013, talked frankly about the next steps in the restructuring. He observed that although it is clear what has to be done, restructuring has only reached the halfway point.

Tokyo Electron Ltd., having reported 46% year-on-year sales growth for the first quarter and a more than sixfold increase in operating profit, has revised its forecast for the first half of this fiscal year, raising the figure for sales 12 billion yen (US$120 million*) to 290 billion yen and that for operating profit 6.5 billion yen to 24.5 billion yen.

Applied Materials, Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., now carrying out the procedures to complete their merger, have announced the name and logo of the holding company that is to be based in the Netherlands following the merger. It will be called Eteris, which is derived from "eternal innovation for society," a concept that is said to express the new company's spirit.

Fujitsu Ltd. is negotiating with United Microelectronics Corp. with a view to selling its 300mm wafer fab in Mie Prefecture to the Taiwanese company, and with Phoenix, Arizona-based, On Semiconductor on the proposed sale of its Aizu fab in Fukushima Prefecture, media reported. The contemplated disposals would signal virtually a complete withdrawal by Fujitsu from semiconductor fabrication.

Applied Materials, Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., now carrying out the procedures to complete their merger, have announced the name and logo of the holding company that is to be based in the Netherlands following the merger. It will be called Eteris, which is derived from "eternal innovation for society," a concept that is said to express the new company's spirit.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.82 in May, staying below 1 for the third successive month, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Nikon Corp. announced a three-year business plan calling for sales to increase 22% to 1,200 billion yen (US$12 billion*) and operating profit 75% to 110 billion yen within the term of the plan. For a new medical business unit, the sales target is 130 billion yen in fiscal 2016, starting from zero, with M&A set to play a major role.

In contrast to the slowing pace of PV system installation in Europe, PV module shipments in the Japanese market doubled last year to 8.6GW, giving Japan a growth rate second only to China's. In this expanding market, overseas suppliers' raised their share to almost 30%, according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA).

Renesas Electronics Corp. has agreed to sell subsidiary Renesas SP Drivers Inc. to Santa Clara, California-based, Synaptics Inc., an interface solutions vendor. Synaptics expects the acquisition of the LCD driver company, whose annual sales figure is equivalent to more than 75% of its own, will enable it to address a market worth 50% more than the one it currently serves.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. have been working together since last June to connect home appliance control with Toyota's telematics service. This collaboration is about to bear fruit as a new service that is scheduled to be launched in the second half of this year.

Panasonic Corp. and Sony Corp. are in negotiations to sell their OLED businesses to Japan Display Inc., which will establish a company specializing in OLED, with government-backed Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ) taking a majority stake in the venture, media reported. The parties reportedly intend to conclude the negotiations within this month.

Toshiba Corp. announced a 3-year business plan for fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2016 calling for growth of 1 trillion yen or 15% in sales in fiscal 2016 compared with fiscal 2013, and which targets sales of 7.5 trillion yen (US$75 billion*) in the plan's final year, ending March 2017, with operating profit of 450 billion yen and net profit of 200 billion yen.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.83 in April, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The fact that the ratio has been below 1 for two consecutive months is considered largely attributable to a seasonal factor.

Kazuo Ushida, senior executive vice president and president of Nikon Precision Equipment Company, will take office as president of Nikon Corp. following approval at a general meeting of shareholders on June 27.

"As a national strategy, Japan will begin 4K TV broadcasting in 2014 and lead the world by introducing 8K TV broadcasting in 2016," said Toshiyuki Minami, deputy director-general of the Information and Communications Bureau at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), in a keynote speech at FineTech Japan 2014 last month in Tokyo.

Just a week or so after Samsung's announcement about its 3D NAND fab in Xian, China, Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk have announced that they will build a new fab for 3D NAND flash memories at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie Prefecture, replacing the idle Fab 2.

Renesas Electronics Corp., currently in the midst of restructuring underpinned by a 150 billion yen (US$1.5 billion*) capital injection from the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), has reported its business results for fiscal 2013 ended in March—the eye-catcher is the first full-year operating profit since fiscal 2010, the year it was established, and reported marginal operating profit.

Targeting next-generation 5G mobile communications services whose launch is slated for around 2020, NTT Docomo Inc. has agreed with six companies—Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung Electronics—to jointly develop related technologies and conduct trials with each of them.

Panasonic Corp. will sell a majority interest in its surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter business for 148.5 million dollars to Woburn, Massachusetts-based, Skyworks Solutions Inc., which will establish a JV on August 1 in which Panasonic will have a 34% equity stake.

As already reported in outline by the media, Fujitsu Ltd., Panasonic Corp. and the state-owned Development Bank of Japan, Inc. (DBJ) have agreed to form a yet-to-be-named JV fabless company by the end of the year—once antitrust authorities in various jurisdictions are staisfied—specializing in system LSI design and development.

Toshiba Corp. announced it has taken the lead in advancing process technology to 15nm, which it calls the 1Znm process, and will begin producing NAND flash memory using the process at the end of this month at Fab 5 of its Yokkaichi Operations.

Thanks to adoption by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for its smart meter system, Wi-SUN is gaining momentum and seems destined to be the major communications format in Japan for M2M communications.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.87 in March, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The ratio dropped below 1 after 11 consecutive months above 1, as billing, surged to the highest level in six years.

Fujitsu Ltd. and Panasonic Corp. have agreed to establish a fabless JV this autumn by integrating their system-on-chip LSI design businesses, using investment by the Development Bank of Japan for that purpose, media reported.

April 1 looms large in the Japanese calendar. For government and most companies it signaled the start of fiscal 2014. This year the date had added significance because consumption tax jumped from 5% to 8% on that day. There are fears that the tax hike will be like a bucket of cold water chucked over the Japanese economy, which after marking time for more than 20 years, is at last showing signs of renewed vitality.

Apple Inc. is negotiating with Renesas with a view to acquiring the Japanese company's subsidiary Renesas SP Drivers Inc., attracted by its technology, Nikkei reported from Silicon Valley.

Panasonic Corp. announced a new sales target of 10 trillion yen (US$100 million*) for fiscal 2019**, its centennial year, and what's more, aims to hit that number mainly on the strength of businesses other than consumer electronics, signaling dramatic change for an enterprise that has traditionally been synonymous with consumer electronics.

Nikon Corp., which has promised to ship a 450mm tool in 2015, intends to boost ArF immersion lithography technology with its newly announced NSR-S630D for 300mm lines and is positioning the upcoming 450mm tool as an extension of ArF technology.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.12 in February, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Following the arrest of a former SanDisk engineer who is alleged to have stolen technical data from Toshiba's Yokkaichi NAND operations and provided it to SK Hynix Inc. when he took up a job with the Korean company, Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. respectively filed lawsuits against Hynix seeking redress.

Japan's PV market has been transformed in composition and scale since the feed-in tariff scheme was introduced in July 2012. No longer a market dominated by Japanese manufacturers and skewed toward residential installations, overseas suppliers account for an increasing share of a growing market in which non-residential PV installations are the fastest-growing segment.

Thine Electronics, Inc. announced that it has licensed its V-by-One HS display interface technology to Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc. Buoyed by the announcement on Monday, the share price of Thine Electronics, Japan's leading fabless company, has soared more than 15% since last week on the JASDAQ stock market.

Positioning healthcare as its third mainstay business alongside Storage and Energy, Toshiba Corp. set an ambitious target in its 3-year business plan announced last August: drive growth of the healthcare business to 600 billion yen (US$6 billion*) in sales in fiscal 2015, a roughly 50% increase from fiscal 2013, and then keep on climbing to 1 trillion yen (US$10 billion*) in fiscal 2017. Toshiba went public on Thursday with its strategy for hitting these big numbers, showcased the technologies it hopes will underpin expansion, and made it clear that, in addition to organic growth, it will pursue growth through aggressive M&A.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.10 in January according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the third consecutive month-on-month decline.

Canon Inc. has announced that it agreed with Austin, Texas-based Molecular Imprints, Inc., on February 5 to acquire the American company and will make it a wholly owned subsidiary, which means Canon has selected nanoimprint as its next-generation lithography technology.

Toshiba will invest about 40 billion yen (US$400 million*) in its Yokkaichi NAND fab, NHK, Japan's sole public broadcasting station, reported today.

Renesas Electronics Corp. announced its business results for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 together with the forecast for the full year ending March 2014. The company not only recorded an operating profit of 30 billion yen (US$300 million*) for the quarter—making it the fourth consecutive quarter in the black—but forecast an operating profit of 54.7 billion yen for the full year, which would be Renesas' first fiscal year in the black since its foundation in 2010.

Sony Corp. is negotiating the sale of its PC business, featuring the Vaio brand, to Japan Industrial Partners, Inc., a Tokyo-based investment fund, media reported.

Sony Corp. has agreed to acquire Renesas Electronics Corp.'s Tsuruoka fab, a 300mm facility, for 7.5 billion yen (US$75 million*) and will reposition it as Yamagata Technology Center (Yamagata TEC), a unit of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Semiconductor Corp. (SCK), for fabrication of back-side illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensors. The transaction is to be completed on March 31.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.35 in December according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the second consecutive month-on-month decline, but still at a high level.

Renesas Electronics Corp. has launched a product longevity program that clearly indicates the period during which Renesas assures supply for each product. The program targets coverage of over 5,000 current and yet-to-be-released products comprising MCUs and analog and power devices, and eventually system-on-chip LSIs will be included too.

Renesas Electronics Corp., which is restructuring under a new management team appointed last June by the Innovative Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ), is reportedly preparing to eliminate 5,400 jobs in Japan by the end of fiscal 2015 (March 2016).

Global sales by Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturers for fiscal 2014 starting April will increase 11.6%, following modest growth of 8.5% for this fiscal year ending March, according to the latest forecast announced on Wednesday by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

2014 is shaping up to be a good year for Japan's electronics industry. On the plus side, the industry should benefit from an economic recovery engineered by the Abe administration as well as a weaker yen, many companies should be in better shape having restructured their operations, and Tokyo's selection as host for the 2020 Olympics is an additional tonic. On the other hand, naysayers worry about the impact of the consumption-tax hike due in April.