Nikon Corp, a maker of digital cameras and chip-manufacturing equipment, said sales of both product lines may slump if the US economy slows because of last week's terrorist attacks.
The attacks have "thrown cold water on already cooling US consumer confidence," said spokesman Yasuhiro Katagiri. Nikon derives 30 percent of its sales from North America. The attacks came a week after Nikon already had cut its profit forecast for the year ending in March.
Nikon joins a growing number of Japanese companies, from Honda Motor Co to computer maker Fujitsu Ltd, that have warned their business may be hurt by the attacks.
Nikon's immediate concern is that US consumers will buy fewer digital cameras, Katagiri said. Nikon is pushing for a 10 percent share of the world market and earlier this month boosted its projected sales for the year by 80,000 cameras to 1.36 million, double last year's figure.
Nikon is also the largest maker of steppers, used to etch circuitry on semiconductor chips. It fears the attacks have dimmed prospects for a recovery in the chip industry next year, Katagiri said.
"If US consumer confidence weakens, companies will cut capital investment, hurting demand for steppers," he said. Nikon had expected the semiconductor slump to bottom out in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 31.
Nikon said on Sept. 3 it probably won't earn a profit this year because of weaker stepper sales. It earlier had forecast group net income of ?10 billion.
Steppers are expected to account for 41 percent of Nikon's estimated group sales of ?460 billion (US$3.9 billion) this year, and cameras 43 percent. The company previously expected group sales of ?510 billion.
Orders for Japanese-made equipment used to produce microchips have fallen for seven straight months, the Semiconductor Association of Japan said on Monday. Worldwide orders fell 72 percent in July, the latest month surveyed, from the year-earlier month.
"We were expecting semiconductor-related demand to bottom out in the October-December quarter," said Sadaharu Nagumo, who manages about ?15 billion at Japan Investment Trust Management Co. "However, after the US attack, that may come later." Nikon expects to ship 250 integrated-circuit steppers in the fiscal year, about 40 percent of which are headed for US customers such as Intel Corp.
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