Financial Report 2009
- Start page
- 2009 in brief
- History
- Statement of the Chairman of the Board
- Statement of the CEO
- About Obducat
- Outlook
- Market
- Technology, development, patents and products
- Employees
- Sustainability, environment, ethics
- Five year review
- Key ratios
- Share capital and ownership structure
- Corporate Governance
- Financial Reports
- Affirmation
- Audit Report
- Board of Directors
- Management
- Financial Calendar
- Contacts
- About the Annual Report
|
|
Market
A YEAR OF CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES
2009 was in many respects a year of contradictions. At the same time as the effects of the financial crisis lowered both sales and activities on the market, Obducat achieved significant success. The obvious highlight was the launching of Sindre®400, which resounded throughout the entire trade. Obducat has enhanced its market presence in the principal Asian and USA markets. Application areas of focus are LED, displays, hard disk manufacturing and SEM. ELO (epitaxial lateral overgrowth) exemplifies other novel applications areas that are approaching and emerging rapidly , however each specific area is continuously changing.
Cautious motions at work in the nanotech landscape
Japan, the rest of Asia, the US and Europe – Obducat’s four principal regions – remain unchanged. Japan is still unchallenged and the most important one, but Taiwan and South Korea continuously push their positions forward. Europe bangs the big drum with ambitious supra-state projects. The LED market, perhaps with its strongest foothold in Taiwan, just continues to grow. And this is a market which is closely monitored by Obducat, especially in view of the fully automated and LED-adapted Sindre®400.
Further adaptation of Sindre®400
With the introduction of Sindre®400 in the beginning of 2009, Obducat’s solution is now an excellent option for the industrial market, making NIL attractive to a number of major players. The customer list already includes companies such as Epistar, LG Electronics, UniLite, Toshiba, Dai Nippon Printing, Fujitsu, and Thomson – as well as several other companies which, for reasons of competition, choose anonymity – however now with every opportunity to grow further. At the same time it raises the demands for service and support. 2010 will be a lot about optimising the processes for Sindre®400 customers. This will of course put pressure on Obducat’s organisation, yet offering a golden opportunity to give the finishing touch to the Sindre® platform’s technology. Smoothly running machines from Obducat are furthermore an excellent reference and a display window compared to the rest of the market.
Competitive position
The competition includes both those who compete with alternative and directly competing technologies. Alternative techniques in nano-lithography technology and analysis, EUV (Extreme UV), optical and holographic lithography and confocal microscopy. The number of competitors is still limited but we are seeing increased interest from both new and old competitors to take on NIL market. Obducat is, however, remained strong in their markets. We see this growing competition, rather as something very positive because it indicates that many companies have concluded that this is a very interesting market with great future potential.