Recovery in semiconductor market puts ESEC back in the black

Switzerland's ESEC Group, which produces assembly equipment and systems for the semiconductor industry, says it is back in the black. The group suffered huge losses in 1998, due to a massive glut in the semiconductor market.

Switzerland’s ESEC Group, which produces assembly equipment and systems for the semiconductor industry, says it is back in the black. The group suffered huge losses in 1998, due to a massive glut in the semiconductor market.

ESEC expects operating profit to reach ten per cent of sales of SFr448 million for the 1999/2000 financial year.

A statement from the Group’s headquarters at Cham in canton Zug attributed the improvement to the rapid recovery in the semiconductor market, as well as cost-cutting measures introduced last year.

The group was hard hit as a result of oversupply in the semiconductor industry in 1998. Sales went into freefall, dropping by 40 per cent, or SFr287 million, and leading to a net loss of SFr98.1 million.

ESEC responded by cutting 300 jobs worldwide and introducing short-time working.

ESEC says that after the dramatic market collapse in the second half of the last fiscal year, the semiconductor industry has recovered “quickly and persistently”.

The company said the improvement was down to rising demand in Asia, and that it expects Europe and the United States to follow this trend.

swissinfo and agencies