News Article
International manufacturer anticipates Lower net sales in third quarter
In the second quarter of 2007, the SEZ Group achieved preliminary net sales of 104.8 million Swiss Francs (CHF), slightly above expectations, and surpassed its sales target for the first six months with CHF 207.4 million.
In the second quarter of 2007, the SEZ Group achieved preliminary net sales of 104.8 million Swiss Francs (CHF), slightly above expectations, and surpassed its sales target for the first six months with CHF 207.4 million. Quarter-over-quarter, however, order intake decreased by 25.9 percent to CHF 75.1 million and was significantly below expectations. Due to this decline in order intake, SEZ Group expects lower sales of around CHF 70 million in the third quarter of 2007. In the DRAM segment in particular, a significant portion of planned full-year capital expenditures was executed in the beginning of this year. As a result, orders from memory makers declined significantly from the middle of the second quarter. Independent market researchers currently expect that order volume from the memory market-which contributed to approximately three-fourths of SEZ Group's first half-year sales in 2007-will not recover before the end of this year. Contrary to initial expectations, a recovery of the foundry market has been further delayed. Foundries were able to meet increasing market demand by raising production utilisation without material investment in new equipment. As limitations of utilisation rates are likely to be reached in the next few months, SEZ expects a significant increase in orders from the foundry segment at the end of the third quarter and onward.
