Japan's biggest-ever earthquake halted production briefly at Toshiba's chip plants on Friday and could delay crucial shipments. Toshiba and SanDisk share cutting-edge facilities in Yokkaichi, where they make NAND chips increasingly in demand by Apple and other mobile device makers.

Oil prices climbed to their highest level in 30 months in London today as Libya's uprising reduced shipments and sparked fears of unrest spreading across the Middle East.

Singapore's exports rose at a slower pace in December, ending a year in which shipments jumped the most since 2003 as the global economic recovery boosted demand for the island's goods.

Toshiba's shipments of NAND flash memory chips may fall as much as 20% in January and February because of a power outage at a plant, the company said.

Over the past five years, ST has reduced the size of MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes from more than 500mm3 to less than 10mm3 while increasing resolution, accuracy, temperature stability and reducing power consumption by a factor 10.

The sale of new tablet PCs and smartphones with solid-state storage technology is compensating for weak demand for memory cards and USB flash drives, and has led to a 17% quarter-to-quarter increase in NAND flash shipments and an average price drop of about 9%.

"initial supplies are tight", says Microsoft. Is demand really that strong or is the software holding back shipments artificially?

Samsung Electronics said that three million out of its seven million global Galaxy S smartphones shipments were made to the United States since it launched the phone here in July.

LDK said it expects third-quarter revenue of $610 million to $640 million, up from a previous forecast of revenue of $570 million to $600 million. LDK revised higher its wafer shipments outlook to 550MW to 570MW from its prior outlook of 520MW to 550MW.

"Silicon shipments reflect the tremendous recovery experienced by the semiconductor industry this year," said Stanley Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. "While current data suggest that growth rates are moderating, we expect that the industry will continue to be positive for the next two years."

The study found that Dual- and Triple-SIM card slot phones have grown to touch as much as 38.5% of the total India Mobile Handset shipments, from less than 1% in 2Q 2009 (April-June 2009 quarter).

According to iSuppli, shipments of game-capable mobile phones will be up 11.4% by the end of 2010 to 1.27 billion, compared to 1.14 billion shipments in 2009. By the end of 2010, it expects console shipments to top 52.3 million units, up just 0.2% compared to 2009's 52.1 million units.

Novellus Systems posted quarterly results above expectations, helped by a surge in bookings and shipments. The chip-gear maker has reported net profits of US$63.3 million for the second quarter compared with losses of US$50 million a year ago.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday posted a 20% increase in first-quarter profit, but sales and handset shipments fell below Wall Street's forecast.

Monthly Japanese shipments held steady in March 2010 in a sign that global demand, particularly from Asia, is still expanding, lending support to the country's export-dependent economy.

First Solar has manufactured and shipped more than 1-gigawatt (GW) of its photovoltaic (PV) solar modules in 2009, becoming the first PV company to attain this production volume in a single year, according to the company.

"Lam Research had strong shipments and revenue performance in the September quarter, allowing the company to return to profitability and generate positive cash flow once again," company president and CEO Steve Newberry said in a statement.

"Semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in our variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter," said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus.

LG Electronics, the world's second-biggest maker of LCD televisions, said the company aims to increase shipments by about 47 percent next year, driven by demand from emerging markets.

Toshiba has begun volume shipments of solid-state drives ranging up to 512GB in size. The drives are built on a 43nm manufacturing process using multi-level cell (MLC) technology.

Shares of solar-energy company LDK Solar rose sharply on July 24 after the Chinese company raised its second-quarter revenue and shipment forecasts. LDK plans to report its results on August 12.

Solar-power company LDK Solar boosted its wafer shipment forecast for the second quarter on stronger-than-expected demand but issued a revenue view below Wall Street estimates.