As always, I am deeply grateful to you, our shareholders and investors, for your continued support of SUMCO.

During the first half of fiscal year 2024 (January 1, 2024–June 30, 2024), the semiconductor market as a whole continued to recover, driven by strong demand for data center use with the advance of AI, despite ongoing demand weakness in semiconductors for consumer, industrial, and automotive uses. As a result, demand for 300 mm silicon wafers entered a recovery phase, centering around leading-edge products for data centers to meet AI needs, while the slow pace of shipments of wafers of 200 mm and smaller continued.

What does the future look like for the semiconductor market? In addition to the recovery of demand for data center use with growing AI utilization, we expect a recovery also for personal computer, smartphone, and automotive uses, whereas consumer and industrial applications are likely to see continued weak demand. Since it will take time for customers to draw down their inventories of wafers other than those for leading-edge products, we expect the recovery in demand for 300 mm silicon wafers to continue at a gradual pace, while weak demand is expected to continue for 200 mm and smaller wafers.

To deal with the challenges of the current business environment, the SUMCO Group is focused on strengthening our initiatives for securing revenues, making use of AI to improve productivity, working to become more cost-competitive, and building a production structure capable of agilely responding to market fluctuations.
We will also redouble our technology development efforts, promoting product differentiation and the development of high value-added products, while responding quickly to increasingly high-level and diverse customer needs amid great changes in semiconductor technology, thereby maintaining our high market share in leading-edge wafers.

We have set an interim dividend amount of 15 yen per share for the fiscal year ending December 2024, based on an overall consideration of such factors as the profit levels in this period, the outlook for the second half and beyond, funding needs for capital investment, and the status of internal reserves. This brings the total dividend amount to 5.2 billion yen, and the consolidated dividend payout ratio excluding subsidy income to 42.4%.
As we continue paying close attention to the economic environment for the Group and revenues status, along with funding needs, industry trends, and other factors, we remain committed to providing our shareholders with appropriate return in keeping with the situation.