Whether the surge in orders converts into sales and profit is the key issue for FY2026-Q3

Revenue in the first half of FY2026 was ¥12,684 million, down 24.4% year on year, while operating profit was ¥123 million, down 95.1%. The operating margin fell from approximately 15.0% in the same period of the previous year to approximately 1.0%, indicating that profitability deteriorated more sharply than the decline in revenue. Operating profit was ¥2,517 million in the same period of the previous year, meaning that the decline in profit reached ¥2,394 million.

By contrast, order intake was ¥47,770.007 million, up 489.1% year on year, and the order backlog was ¥54,743.633 million, up 226.9%. Dividing the order backlog by first-half revenue of ¥12,684 million gives approximately 4.3 times, illustrating that orders substantially exceed revenue. However, first-half revenue represented only approximately 23.2% of the order backlog, indicating that the increase in orders has not translated directly into short-term revenue and profit.

The company explained that demand for AI servers remains strong and that memory semiconductor supply shortages and an upward trend in prices continue. However, first-half revenue from the semiconductor equipment segment was ¥6,080 million, down 14.2% year on year. Delays in customer acceptance of equipment already shipped were a factor behind the decline in revenue, creating a time lag between the order environment and revenue recognition. Since customer acceptance can take more than one year for some projects, the size of the order backlog alone is insufficient to determine when revenue will be recognized or what margins will be achieved in the third quarter.

In the third quarter, in addition to total order intake and the order backlog, it will be necessary to review the order backlog by the revised categories, including semiconductor equipment, cleaning equipment and coaters, as well as the value of shipped but unaccepted projects and their scheduled acceptance dates. The first-half results did not disclose the effects of delayed acceptance, equipment impairment and additional costs by factor. Accordingly, disclosure will be important to distinguish between profit recovery resulting from the resolution of acceptance delays and low-margin revenue accompanied by cost deterioration.