The Japanese lithography machine giant Nikon recently announced its performance showing a huge loss in the lithography machine business because almost no one wanted its lithography machines, and its shipments plummeted by 60% year-on-year. There is almost no market for lithography machines.
Nikon’s published results show that the shipment of lithography machines in the second quarter was only 6 units, a drop of 60% compared with 15 units in the same period last year, which directly led to a loss of 3.5 billion yen in the precision machine business responsible for lithography machines. In 2019, the business made a profit of 3.9 billion yen.
Due to the severe setback in the lithography machine business, Nikon's net profit plummeted by nearly 80%, highlighting that the company is now quite dependent on the profits earned by the lithography machine business. After all, as digital cameras are eliminated from the market, Nikon's imaging technology remains There are not many places where it can be used, and lithography machines have become an important market for it.
There are two lithography machine companies in Japan, Canon and Nikon. They mainly developed dry lithography machines before, but as lithography machines developed to immersion and EUV lithography machines, they have been gradually eliminated by the market. After their painstaking efforts, the two have now developed different technical routes.
Canon has developed the NIL process, which uses imprinting technology similar to copiers to develop advanced processes. It is said that it has broken through 10 nanometers, and it is expected that the most advanced technology can be developed to 5 nanometers. This has become the lifeline of Canon. However, due to the influence of the United States, Canon cannot sell the NIL process to China.
Nikon has developed an immersion process. However, similar to Canon’s NIL process, it is unlikely to be adopted in other markets except China and Japan. After all, its immersion lithography machine has already lagged behind ASML lacks market competitiveness.
Since 2020, due to the requirements of the United States, ASML has continuously strengthened restrictions on the sale of lithography machines in China. This has brought short-term opportunities for Japanese lithography machines, and the Japanese lithography machine industry once saw the hope of revival. .
In those years, China purchased lithography machines on a large scale. The lithography machines supplied by ASML to China could not meet the demand. More than twice as high; in the second half of 2022, ASML will be further restricted from selling lithography machines below 14 nanometers to China. A Chinese company purchased 27 lithography machines, of which 21 were given to Nikon in Japan, which made Nikon a lot of money. Bowl full.
However, in the first half of this year, Japan decided to follow the request of the United States and restrict the export of 23 types of chip equipment and materials, including lithography machines, to China. The embarrassing situation of not being able to sell.
Facts have proved that the Chinese market is the most important market for Japanese chip equipment and materials. After all, Japan’s chip equipment and materials are not advanced enough, and China has a strong demand for mature technology. Originally, this could be a win-win cooperation for both parties, but Japan Abandoning the Chinese market due to the broken arm caused Japan's chip equipment and materials industry to suffer a severe setback.