Top Message

DISCO’s GP margin reached a record high in the first half of FY2023 due to an increase in various applications and high value-added products.
We will continue to make efforts to strengthen the company with advanced KKM technologies at our core.

Business Environment and Performance

In FY2023, due to the sharp increase in the cost of resources and commodities owing to a rise in geopolitical risks and changing supply chains, the demand for end products such as computers, smartphones, and consumer devices slowed down. From this, a trend was seen where semiconductor manufacturers, who are our customers, curbed their facility investments for IC. On the other hand, investments were more proactive for power semiconductors in prediction of the future demand that will accompany the worldwide shift to electric vehicles (EV) and a decarbonized society, and the favorability of investments differed based on the application.
In such a business environment, seeing as how semiconductor manufacturer investments in research and development and demands for power semiconductors were favorable, DISCO has continued full operation of our factories and maintained stable shipments of precision processing equipment with a focus on grinders. Although our performance saw a decrease in both income and profits, our GP margin is steadily increasing due to the creation of added value and decrease in cost price from high added-value transactions and PIM business improvement activities.

Regarding the interim dividend, based on the dividend policy, the performance-based dividend per share will be JPY 76 (JPY 94* in the previous year).

*Taking the Stock Split into account

The Year Ahead

As uncertainties regarding when the demand for end products such as computers and smartphones will recover to full scale continue, it is predicted that there will be a continued demand for SiC power semiconductors due to the increase in demand for energy-saving products and the shift to EV, and that equipment shipment trends for generative AI will remain high.
Technology related to high performance semiconductors for SiC and generative AI, for which demand is currently increasing, has been an R&D theme at DISCO for more than 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 handling capacity will ultimately allow us to respond to future demands when the time comes. We have made the decision to build a new building at the Haneda R&D Center in order to be able to handle our customers’ R&D themes, 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.

December 2023
Kazuma Sekiya, Representative Director and President