Demand for FPD and solar set to grow

Applied Materials, the world's biggest semiconductor equipment maker, predicts a decline in integrated circuit market revenue in China this year but expects demand for flat panel display (FPD) and solar energy equipment to grow.

US-based Applied Materials expects the global semiconductor market to decline 10 percent annually, which will probably affect its Chinese business, according to Ruey-bin Kao, president of Applied Materials China's.

"It (semiconductor industry) is in the bottom of the cycle in 2013 but it's going to rebound in future," Kao said.

Although it faces a declining semiconductor market in 2013, Applied Materials, a major equipment supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, is optimistic about the FPD and solar energy sectors which have been identified by China as strategic industries to develop by 2015 under the country's 12th Five-Year plan.

The liquid crystal display panel manufacturing plants, invested by Samsung, LG and Sharp, are moving to China and Kao said the demand will surge from the second half.

Last year LG announced a US$4 billion investment on a LCD panel plant in Guangzhou, which will start production in 2014.