February 2024

During the first six months of this fiscal year, inflationary pressures remained strong despite the easing of energy/natural resource price hikes, and the US and European central banks kept their policy interest rates high. Under these circumstances, concerns were rising about the prospect of a global economic slowdown.

In the semiconductor industry, our primary market, there were signs of the smartphone and PC markets bottoming out while inventory adjustments continued throughout the entire supply chain. However, semiconductor device makers remained cautious about making capital investments, and investment for the expansion of production using leading-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and for the development of next-generation manufacturing processes continued to hover around a certain level. In the mid to long term, however, the semiconductor market is expected to grow as demand continues to increase for various applications, including generative AI and automotive. Amid this trend, there are ongoing government-led initiatives to construct or expand wafer fabs worldwide because of the need to hedge against heightening geopolitical risks. Furthermore, there are continual needs for semiconductor devices with higher performance and energy efficiencies achieved through the shrinkage of device geometries and the semiconductor equipment market is expected to grow in the mid to long term.

Under these circumstances, our consolidated net sales for the six-month period ended December 31, 2023, totaled 94,989 million yen (up 72.4% year-on-year). We recorded an operating income of 31,752 million yen (up 75.2% year-on-year) and a 22,198 million yen net income attributable to owners of parent (up 63.4% year-on-year), achieving record high sales and profits for the first half of a fiscal year.

In light of the trend of foreign exchange fluctuations, we have revised our full-year forecast upwardly to 195.0 billion yen in net sales (up 27.6% year-on-year), 67.0 billion yen in operating income (up 7.6% year-on-year), and 49.0 billion yen in net income attributable to owners of parent (up 6.1% year-on-year).

Orders for the first half of FY2024 totaled 72,535 million yen. Although semiconductor device makers remain cautious about making capital investments, investments for such applications as generative AI and power semiconductors are robust. There are also signs of recovery in consumer demand, and inventory adjustments are being made throughout the supply chain. We therefore expect to see market recovery in 2024.

We are currently in the final year of Phase 3⁺ of our Mid-term Business Plan. In 2023, there was a surge of interest in new applications of semiconductors, including generative AI such as Chat GPT.

Nonetheless, overall capital investments were sluggish across the entire supply chain throughout the year due to weak consumer demand, particularly for smartphones and PCs. However, the semiconductor market is expected to recover in 2024 and projected to grow in the mid to long term. We continue to have an optimistic view about large growth opportunities this will present to us. We see growth opportunities in various innovations continuously made for the shrinking of device geometries, new architectures, and new materials to achieve the development of next-generation semiconductors. We will therefore focus on investing in EUV and other leading-edge technologies. In the second half of this fiscal year, we will keep strengthening our corporate infrastructure to support growth and deliver leading-edge solutions in a timely manner to meet customer needs and respond to changes in the market. By doing so, we will contribute to the progress of society while achieving growth at the same time.

We set the interim dividend for this fiscal year at 73 yen per share. In light of our revised business forecast, we have revised our forecast for the year-end dividend to 118 yen per share (whereas initial forecast was 110 yen per share) and full-year forecast to 191 yen per share (up 11 yen year-on-year).

At Lasertec, we are dedicated to contributing to society and achieving growth by engaging in businesses that make the best use of our expertise in optical technology, guided by our corporate philosophy, “Create unique solutions. Create new value”.