The global market for LCD glass substrates is projected to cross 467.2 million square meters by the year 2017, primarily driven by rising penetration of LCD TVs and the growing demand for large size displays.

Infineon Technologies may scale back its investment plans amid a slowdown in the chip sector and as demand falls due to the uncertain economic climate, according to CEO Peter Bauer.

Micron Technology fell in US trading after reporting a fiscal fourth-quarter loss on weak demand for personal computers.

Corning announced that it expects an overall 35% year-over-year decline in equity earnings from its two main joint-ventures - Samsung Corning and Dow Corning in third quarter of 2011, because of lower volumes at Samsung Corning due to the lower-than-expected LCD panel maker utilization rates.

The reduction in expected revenue and profitability for the third quarter is primarily the result of reduced demand from the company's largest customer, weakness in the communications infrastructure market and softening demand from the China market.

Taiwan's dollar weakened for a fourth day, sliding to an eight-month low, on concern that slowing global growth will weaken demand for the island's exports and slow job creation. Bonds rose.

SMA Solar Technology AG, the world's biggest maker of solar inverters, slashed full-year targets only days after its chief executive called the outlook challenging, confirming fears the industry bellwether was not immune to falling demand.

Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) has seen its second-quarter profits more than halve, hurt by low demand for its older models.

The majority of the reduction is from the company's wireless products, which have experienced an unexpected decline in demand and pricing.

Texas Instruments has narrowed and lowered its expected ranges for revenue and earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter of 2011. The reductions are due to broadly lower demand across a wide range of products, markets and customers.

Japan's Sumco, the world's No.2 supplier of silicon wafers used to make chips, slashed its annual operating profit forecast by 37% on weak PC demand and slower-than-expected growth in smartphones and tablet PCs, and it said the fragile economy could make chip demand retreat further.

South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products reached 13.06 billion U.S. dollars in August due to strong demand for the locally-made smartphones and TVs, a government report showed Wednesday.

Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter told analysts on a conference call that he is now expecting chipmakers to spend US$1 billion less on new equipment than the company forecast in July. "We've seen demand from our foundry customers soften significantly in the past six weeks," Splitner said.

The pressure in the DRAM business today is "untenable for a number of players," with something needing to happen to the struggling Asian memory makers within the next couple of quarters, Micron CEO Steve Appleton was quoted as saying.

Samsung Electronics, maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia and Apple in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Sales of PCs with Windows to businesses actually rose 8% in the quarter ended June 30, but could not offset weak demand among consumers, particularly in so-called developed markets, according to Microsoft. Sales of lightweight netbook computers with Windows fell 41% in the period.

"Demand growth is likely to be weaker than usual in the third quarter, as customers are delaying purchases due to slow global economic growth," Hynix said.

"What foundries are seeing more and more, and what we're seeing overall, is a very tight linkage to consumer demand. All of us are disappointed with demand for PCs this year, and tablets probably will be 20 million units short of what people thought was possible for the year..."

Toshiba President Norio Sasaki also said the company is gaining on South Korea's Samsung Electronics in terms of flash memory global market share, though warned that the rivalry could undercut prices.

3M has announced the opening of the company's application laboratory in Yangmei, Taiwan, for 200mm and 300mm temporary wafer bonding. The addition expands 3M's existing wafer support applications labs in Japan and the US to meet customer demand.

Micron executives' comments about limited visibility of consumer PC demand and higher-than-ideal inventories of DRAM chips sparked a Friday sell-off in stocks linked to personal computers.

China will relax a decades-old ban on travel to Taiwan by individuals under a pilot scheme starting June 28, the government said Sunday, responding to growing demand amid a thaw between the two sides.

Texas Instruments has lowered its revenue forecast for the second fiscal quarter due to lower demand for its products from Nokia.

STMicroelectronics plans to significantly increase its MEMS production capacity to more than 3 million sensors a day by the end of 2011 to sustain exploding demand.

The company announced plans to double production of USB 3.0 host controllers to six million units a month starting June to satisfy the rising demand.

Taiwan's currency advanced 0.8% to NT$28.511 against its US counterpart as of 9:24 a.m. local time, according to Taipei Forex. It touched NT$28.495 earlier, the strongest level since October 1997.

"I don't think Samsung would ever want to be No. 2 in any market," said Catherine Morse, the general counsel and director of public affairs at Samsung Austin Semiconductor.

TriQuint Semiconductor's first-quarter earnings met analysts' expectations, helped by strong demand in the smartphone market, but the wireless communications products supplier forecast lower-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

ARM, the UK designer of chips that help power Apple's iPhone, said first-quarter sales rose 26% on booming demand for smartphones and tablet computers.

Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenues and raised its guidance for 2011 as global demand for smartphones and tablets grew. Supply-chain concerns stemming from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan had not affected Qualcomm's ability to make chips, and it had seen very little impact on demand for its products, the company said.

"2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth," said Rich Templeton, TI CEO. "But the Japan earthquake that's taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there."

Ford is to cut its workforce in Victoria by 240 after a slump in demand for larger cars, and competitor Toyota will reduce hours for manufacturing staff in the wake of the Japanese earthquake disaster.

The deficit for the first three months of 2011 stood at US$1.02 billion, according to the latest data by the General Administration of Customs. China has said that it is working towards increasing domestic demand and becoming less reliant on exports to sustain its growth.

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.

"Hard disk drives will serve the bulk of the laptop market for many years to come as makers of solid state drives remain overstretched to meet ever-growing demand for laptop storage..."

Growing global demand has fuelled a surge in US manufacturing activity, which last month (Feb. 2011) accelerated at its fastest rate in almost seven years, according to the Institute of Supply Management.