Applied Materials on Wednesday reported a lower quarterly net profit due in part to restructuring costs, but the world's top supplier of equipment for making microchips still topped expectations as sales rose.

All in fiscal year

Matsushita Electric, has raised its target shipments of PDP TVs in the U.S. market by more than 200% to 1.5 million units for the fiscal year 2006.

Silicon wafer area shipments in 2005 totaled 6,645 million square inches (MSI), up from the 6,262 million square inches shipped during 2004. Revenues grew to $7.9 billion from $7.3 billion posted in 2004.

The credit profile for Taiwan's leading dedicated integrated circuit foundries ("DICF") continues to be stable in 2006 as market conditions for the technology sector are expected to be manageable.

registration required