In FY2023, due to a decrease in demand for end products such as computers, smartphones, and consumer devices, capital investment for mass production was sluggish. On the other hand, investment in power semiconductors remained high, supported by the demand accompanying the worldwide shift to electric vehicles (EV) and a decarbonized society. In addition, increasing willingness to make capital investments was observed for high-performance semiconductors related to generative AI. To summarize, willingness to invest depended on the application.
Seeing the increased demand for high value-added products in this current business environment, DISCO’s factories have continued to run at full capacity, and with the increase in shipments of precision processing equipment, in particular grinders, DISCO has hit a record high shipment volume.
Our gross profit margin increased due to the creation of added value from PIM activities and a decrease in production costs in addition to the favorable exchange rate and high added-value transactions, leading to record high profits for the fourth consecutive year.
Regarding shareholder return, based on the dividend policy, the annual total of performance-based dividends and additional dividends from surplus funds per share will be 307 yen (interim: 76 yen, year-end: 231 yen), which is a record high.
As uncertainty persists regarding when demand will fully recover for end products such as computers and smartphones, it is predicted that equipment shipment for SiC power semiconductors and generative AI will remain high.
While demand has been increasing for technology related to high-performance semiconductors for generative AI since last year, this technology has been a focus of R&D at DISCO for over 10 years.
Although it is difficult to predict when new technologies will appear in the market, we believe that proactively working on various R&D themes with a mid-to-long term perspective in mind and continuing to increase our capacity to respond to these changes will ultimately allow us to handle future demand when the time comes.
We have made the decision to establish a new building at the Haneda R&D Center to better handle our customers’ R&D needs, which we expect to increase in the future.
We will continue to dedicate our full efforts to “advanced Kiru, Kezuru, Migaku technologies” and improve our value exchangeability with our stakeholders.
We will also continue to strengthen the company based on DISCO VALUES and continue to focus our efforts on both organizational and business management through systems such as Will accounting and PIM activities.
We deeply appreciate the continued support of all our stakeholders and would like to kindly request your cooperation in the year ahead.
June 2024
Kazuma Sekiya, Representative Executive Officer, President