SEMICON Japan 2009, one of the largest international exhibitions for the semiconductor industry, was held at the Makuhari Messe convention complex in Japan.
The three day show which began December 2, attracted 21,500 visitors on opening day and 20,700 visitors the following day. Attendance was down approximately 35% compared to the previous year, while allocated floor space for the show was cut 50%.
Organizers expected the turnout to be low for exhibitors and visitors since the global recession has left no industry unscathed.
The major exhibitors participating in the show were mostly manufacturing equipment manufacturers and material vendors. Many companies canceled booths this year, and those companies that were in attendance reserved smaller booths compared to last year.
The reduced floor size reserved by the show was enough to accommodate the crowd that filled the aisles and open areas. This created the illusion the show seemed just as busy as previous years due to the downsized area.
In the past, many foreign visitors from Korea and Taiwan visited the show to catch up on the latest semiconductor technologies developed by Japanese and American companies. However, I did not hear many Chinese or Korean conversations during the show, and rumor has it that budget constraints forced many foreign companies from expensing the trip for their engineers.
Three days is usually not enough time to check out all the booths at the normally huge exhibition. But, this year, one day was plenty of time.
Many visitors were probably disappointed from the lack of new technologies and products this year. Most companies were not too aggressive with promoting new products, and overall, the exhibition was remarkably quiet compared to previous years.
The bright spot in the industry right now is the rebound in business for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Sales have continued to grow over the last few months after a long downward cycle that began in 2007.
Unfortunately, semiconductor industry shipments are still less than 50% compared to the busy years and many of the vendors and manufacturing reps at this year’s show were not too optimistic with future business trends.
There were, however, several energetic representatives at the exhibition from technical colleges and small companies hailing from the northern area of the Japan’s major island.
Their booths were the smallest ones available to rent; however, they did an extremely good job of promoting their unique technologies developed during the year.
These small companies worked on special processes such as laser cutting, chemical plating, sputtering, polishing… Their role in the supply chain is to act as subcontractors for large companies needing specific processes for semiconductor manufacturing.
Their recent activities center on developing unique and valuable technologies as they try to attract new customers to this new economic market.
These companies cannot be classified as venture organizations because they already have steady business and revenue streams. Their business plan is to try and diversify by introducing new technologies, and not be limited by the main stream operations from industry.
These smaller companies seem to be taking the right approach, and could serve as an example to the larger companies from the semiconductor and electronics industries.
Source: EPT Newsletter, VentureOutsource.com, December 2009
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