A favorable trend so far unseen
Q. We understand your business performance has been in excellent condition.
A. Now, we are in the best condition ever since I was in charge of this business 12 years ago.
In addition to the good business condition of wafer production in the IT industry, the wave of capital investment for solar cells has started at the same time, and we have ridden the waves.
Our market, such as IT industry and Solar Cell industry, has never been in a good condition at the same time, but this is the first time that the two fields are both in good condition at the same time.
In addition, our good condition is due to a significantly increasing investment in the new material market, which is another pillar.
We are now in a more advantageous position because we can meet our customers' needs in a meticulous manner due to the wide range of lineups of our products.
The next move in a market where it is difficult to see beyond
Q. How do you think about the future for various markets?
A. Our market has been said that it would be very difficult to predict the trend even beyond three month, and that is why it is very difficult to make a forecast for the future. The followings are my personal prediction and hope for our markets.
The greatest number of solar cells are now being produced in Southeast Asia. Japan and Southeaster Asian countries now produce 60% of the silicone wafers in the world, which are the basis of solar cells. Our company now occupies the 60% market share in the Southeastern Asian market. This market is now growing by over 20% every year, and we anticipate this favorable trend will continue at least for more than one year.
The semiconductor market has entered a transition period from 8-inch wafers to 12-inch wafers, and we expect the increased production will continue at least for the coming two years.
It appears the new materials are closely linked with the increase in the production of liquid crystal TV sets.
Q. Does it appear that there is a pressing need for reinforcing productivity?
A. We have so far increased our production capacity by 30% compared with that of last year.
In addition, we have set up an important task of building up production base and service network both in Japan and overseas, and we have so far increased human resources and reinforced our service network.
Our Customers Center will integrate the information on a companywide basis, and the entire company is trying to concentrate its strength to support the service and development.
Development will be carried out taking advantage of the core of the entire NTC buisnesses
Q. Is the entire company going to support the semiconductor business in terms of development?
A. We are now developing some new models, but we have so far encountered some problems because it is difficult for a single division to have sufficient power to cope with such problems due to its limited human resources. As the core portion related to transfer machines, machine tools and grinding machines are concentrated at Customers Center, we will utilize their core technologies to produce good results.
Each division has different types of workpieces to machine and has different ideas, but their core technologies are the same. Even if industry sectors are different, machines are machines, and any machines that do not follow the core technologies may cause some problems. As one of the roles of Customers Center, it is an idea to develop new products based on the design concept using the accumulated information and knowledge from various divisions.
We have so far been aware that our semiconductor manufacturing equipment division is different from other divisions, but from now on, we will proceed toward our goal by sharing the core technologies to launch increasingly excellent products into the markets.
As the technological hurdle in the market is getting higher and higher, we intend to launch such new products on which all of our company's cutting edge technologies are concentrated by integrating the capabilities of the entire company.
