KOKUSAI ELECTRIC corporation is pleased to begin the presentation of financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2025. Thank you very much for watching and participating today. My name Nose from the IR and Corporate Communication Department. I am the moderator of this meeting. Today's proceeding will begin with the presentation, and I would like to introduce the participants today: Tsukada, the President and CEO; Kawakami Yoshitaka, the Senior Vice President and Executive Officer. Today's proceedings will begin with the presentation of the financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2025 and forecasts for the fiscal year by Kawakami, and President and CEO Tsukada will explain the outlook for the future. Today's presentation will be given in Japanese, but with the translation into English. This presentation is intended for institutional investors and analysts only, so we will limit the questions only to institutional investors and analysts.
Please understand. We would also appreciate it if you do not record the presentation. Let us proceed to the presentation. Kawakami-san, please.
This is Kawakami, Senior Vice President and CFO. Thank you very much today for participating in the financial briefings of KOKUSAI ELECTRIC. I will explain the financial results for the year ending in March 2025 and the forecast for March 2026. These are the disclaimers. I will not go into them. First is the financial summary for March 2025. Page four is the highlight. I will go over the specifics from the next page on. Page five is the consolidated results summary of the fourth quarter and the full year. In the fourth quarter, revenue, gross profit, and adjusted operating profit were all about JPY 1 billion to the upside compared to the revised forecast at the time of the second quarter results. Year-on-year, fourth quarter result was increased revenue and profits. Adjusted net income due to the decrease in full-year tax expenses resulted in a big upside.
Profit margin due to improvement in the product mix also was on the upside compared to the forecast. In comparison to the third quarter, adjusted operating profit decreased, but this is due to cost of goods unique to the fourth quarter and the increase in SG&A coming from upfront investments in R&D and human resources, etc. Also, on a full-year basis, revenue and profits increased year-on-year, marking a clear recovery trend. Following the upside in the adjusted net income, the year-end dividend will go up JPY 1 from the previous forecast of JPY 18 to JPY 19. Further, orders received in the fourth quarter were about JPY 77 billion, and in the full year, JPY 225 billion, about JPY 14 billion more than expected. Balance of orders at the end of the year was about JPY 136 billion, about JPY 13 billion more than expected.
Page six is the fourth quarter revenue and adjusted operating profit bridge year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, equipment non-China sales and service sales primarily grew year-on-year, resulting in overall revenue growth of 31% year-on-year. The increase in gross profit coming from higher sales and gross profit margin more than offset increase in SG&A from upfront investments into R&D and human resources, resulting in adjusted operating income growth of 50% year-on-year. Page seven is full-year comparison of the ups and downs versus the year before. For the full year, equipment non-China, equipment China, and service revenues all increased, resulting in year-on-year overall revenue increase of 32%. In equipment non-China, revenues grew for logic, foundry, and DRAM applications, and on top, recovered for NAND. In equipment China, DRAM revenue increased. In service revenue, legacy equipment sales, part sales, and relocation and conversion saw increases.
Adjusted operating profit increased due to gross profit increase coming from sales volume growth, plus profitability improvement from product mix improvement. Adjusted operating profit increased 53% year-on-year. Page eight shows quarterly revenues by business. In the fourth quarter, equipment revenue increased 30%, and service revenue increased 32% year-on-year. In comparison with the third quarter, equipment revenue increase was prominent. On a full-year basis, equipment revenue increased 39%, and service revenue increased 19% year-on-year. Page nine is revenues by application of 300 mm equipments consisting of the equipment business and legacy equipments that are 200 mm or less included in the service business. The fourth quarter situation will come on the next page. For the full year, equipment revenues for DRAM increased 67%, NAND 32%, logic foundry 30%, respectively, year-on-year. Page 10 is non-China and China revenues by application. First is the left-hand side revenues from non-China.
In the fourth quarter, compared with the third, equipment revenue for DRAM application grew significantly. In services, relocations and conversions also grew significantly. Logic, foundry, and NAND revenues decreased because of shipment timings, but continue to be on the recovery trend. Next, moving to the right, revenues from China. Shipments concentrated in the first quarter, and there was a reactionary drop, but with the second quarter at the bottom, growth trend is continuing. In the fourth quarter, quarter on quarter, logic, foundry, equipment revenue grew significantly. Service revenue decreased, but this is because legacy equipment shipments were skewed to the first to the third quarter. Because revenues from non-China grew since the third quarter, China revenue mix has come down to around 40%. Page 11 is revenues by destination. By destination, revenues from Taiwan and South Korea are on an upward trend.
For the full year, revenue mix of Taiwan increased year-on-year. Page 12 is the balance sheet trend. As for the total assets in March 2025, trade and other receivables and PP&E increased, whilst with early repayment of borrowings and acquisition of treasury stock, cash and cash equivalents decreased. Consequently, total assets at the end of March 2025 decreased JPY 33.9 billion from a year ago. Total liabilities decreased with repayment of loans and trade payables and others by JPY 42.7 billion from the end of last year. Total equity increased JPY 8.8 billion with retained earnings increase, among others. Page 13 shows balance sheet main management indices. Equity ratio at the end of March 2025 rose 7 points to 57%.
As to cash and debt relationship, by spending cash to purchase treasury stock, net debt increased to JPY 15.4 billion, but loans payable decreased by JPY 33.3 billion due to early repayment. Page 14 is the full-year cash flows. In the year ending in March 2025, cash inflow from operating activities exceeded cash outflow from investing activities, resulting in free cash flow of JPY 10.8 billion. In March 2026, we also expect a positive free cash flow. Page 15 is full-year R&D, capital expenditure, and depreciation expenses. In anticipation of demand recovery and mid to long-term demand expansion, we continue to invest in R&D and capital equipment in line with our mid-term plan. For R&D spend, which used to be 4-5% of revenues, we plan to raise to 6% or higher. In March 2025, we spent according to the plan, resulting in a 20% increase year-on-year or JPY 15.6 billion.
R&D spend in March 2026 is expected to increase 20% year-on-year. CapEx was JPY 20.3 billion, about the same as last year. Demonstration room expansion in Korea totaling JPY 9 billion and Tonami Manufacturing Center construction totaling JPY 24 billion completed in March 2025. Going forward, in addition to the regular CapEx, for large-scale CapEx, a total of JPY 20 billion is planned to build a new demonstration center in the U.S., which will result in about a 10% CapEx increase in March 2026 year-on-year. Following the large-scale CapEx, depreciation in March 2025 increased 20% year-on-year to JPY 12.6 billion. Depreciation in March 2026 is expected to increase about 10%. I will now move on to explain the full-year forecast for March 2026. Page 17 is the highlight. I will cover the specifics next page onwards. Page 18 is March 2026 earnings and dividend forecast.
March 2026 forecast is revenue of 2% growth, adjusted operating profit decrease of 4%, and adjusted net income decrease of 5% year-on-year. Gross profit margin is expected to increase 0.2 percentage points year-on-year due to the recovery of NAND equipment sales. With regards to dividends, following the shareholder return policy, a payout ratio of more than 20% based on adjusted net income, we forecast JPY 36 dividend for the full year. Page 19 shows earnings forecast bridge from last year's actuals. In March 2026, DRAM sales totaling plus and minus of equipment non-China and equipment China will be decreasing JPY 27 billion year-on-year, but NAND sales is expected to increase a total of JPY 36 billion, combining non-China and China, resulting in total revenue increase of 2% year-on-year.
Adjusted operating profit due to further upfront investments into R&D and human resources over last year is expected to decrease 4% year-on-year, which we consider is the minimum and will be added up as much as possible. At the time of the third quarter results, against the March 2025 forecast of revenue of JPY 238 billion, we were anticipating an increase of 5% or about JPY 250 billion. Taking into account the indirect impact of the tariff policies resulting in economic recession, we made a more cautious estimate. Even if the indirect impacts materialize, we think investments into technologies for device generational changes will continue. Because of the recent strong equipment inquiries for NAND generational change, we raised the NAND revenue forecast by JPY 5 billion to the forecast at the time of the third quarter results.
Whilst capacity investments for greater production volume may be subject to indirect impacts, and thus we lowered general purpose DRAM sales forecast by JPY 12 billion. Page 20 shows revenue forecast by business. In March 2026, equipment revenues are expected to increase 3% and service revenues to remain flat year-on-year. Revenue mix is projected to recover to the ordinary times range of equipment revenue being 70%-75%.
Page 21 shows equipment sales revenue by application in the forecast. In fiscal year March 2026, sales of equipment for NAND are expected to increase 2.8 times from the previous fiscal year due to growth in sales of equipment for NAND as a result of CapEx for the generation shift of 3D NAND. We expect CapEx for DRAM to increase as device generation changes, but considering the investment low among Chinese manufacturers, we forecast a 35% decrease year-on-year.
In logic and foundry, aggressive GAA-related CapEx will drive equipment sales growth, while considering the recent slowdown in CapEx for mature nodes, we forecast a decline of 4% YOY. Sales for SiC, GaN, power devices over 200 mm or smaller are expected to increase by 50% YOY, taking into account the strong inquiries for existing and new products. Page 22 shows a breakdown of sales broken down into those to the rest of the world and those to the local Chinese market. First, let me explain the worldwide sales revenue on the left side. Sales to the rest of the world were up from the previous year by 22%. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, we raised our third quarter forecast for NAND by about JPY 5 billion to 2.4 times the previous year's level.
On the other hand, for DRAM, we lowered our assumption for general purpose DRAM by about JPY 12 billion to a 20% increase from the previous fiscal year. For logic and foundry, we lowered our assumption by about JPY 7 billion, mainly for interposers, to the same level as the previous year. Next, I would like to explain the revenue from the sales to the Chinese local market on the right-hand side. Sales to the local market in China were up from the previous year. It is expected to decrease by 23%. We maintained our forecast over 5.2 times the previous year's level for NAND in the fiscal year ending March 2025 and have already received orders for shipment in the fiscal year ending March 2026. For the DRAM, it's going to be a low for the investment for large manufacturers, so we expect a 65% year-on-year decline.
For logic and foundry, amongst the investors, although the investment appears to have come down, we were too cautious at the time of the third quarter results, and we are now looking at JPY 7 billion. We raised our forecast by 10% from the previous fiscal year to a 10% decrease. As a result of the above, the ratio of sales to China local market is expected to decline from 44% to 33% in the fiscal year ending March 2026. Page 23 is the sales revenue forecast for the first and second half. For March 2026, fiscal year March 2026 is expected to be heavily weighted toward the second half due to a concentrated shipment to NAND manufacturers and logic and foundry manufacturers worldwide.
Due to a lead time of six months, orders for equipment commitments for shipment in the first half of March 2026 have been received, and we consider the probability of achieving the forecast to be high. For the second half, we have cautiously estimated capacity-related demand and focused the plan on technology investment demand. We will provide an update when we announce the other second quarter results. Page 24 is the revenue by destination for the year. Sales to Taiwan and South Korea continue to increase, and the ratio of sales to the U.S. is expected to remain at 5%. The company will not bear any tariffs on the equipment.
With regard to the tariff policies of various countries, the direct impact is expected to be negligible because we do not bear any tariffs on the equipment since our contracts are based on delivery of the equipment at the airport or port of the production site. The indirect direct impact of device manufacturers reevaluating their investment plans due to economic slowdown and cost increase is expected to be material. We will see no direct impact from export restrictions. No indirect impact is anticipated at this time. There are no issues identified yet, but we will continue to monitor the situation closely. I am Tsukada, presently CEO. I would like to explain the outlook for the future. Page 26 shows our market share. The bar graph on the left shows the share data from Gartner Research.
There are two main categories in the deposition field: tube and non-tube, and we have batch deposition equipment in the tube category. The treatment equipment is classified into the RTP and oxidation diffusion categories. Our share of the batch deposition market in 2024 was 41%, up 7 percentage points from the previous year. In the batch deposition market, NAND investment strains have led to a decline in the batch ALD market size and our sales. However, in 2024, the batch ALD market began to recover, and our sales and market share began to increase. On the upper right hand, we have a breakdown of the batch deposition equipment. Of that, the batch ALD market, the pie chart, as shown, our market share rose to more than 70%.
The lower right hand corner shows the breakdown of the treatment equipment market, of which our treatment equipment belonging to the plasma at the gate modification tools market, our market share increased as shown. The reason our share has not returned to the 2022 level is that the investment in NAND, where our treatment equipment is widely used, has only begun to recover, while investment has been mainly focused in DRAM so far. However, adoption of our treatment equipment in DRAM is progressing, leading to expanded sales. Therefore, we anticipate further market share gain once the investment in NAND resumes. The market share of gate stack tools was included in the previous figures, but it has been changed to gate stack tools, but we have decided to show the share focus on plasma gate modification tools. 27 is the outlook for the business environment.
In the semiconductor device market, the investment in NAND is beginning to recover in addition to continued active investment, especially in the generation AI-related market. On the other hand, the recovery in general purpose DRAM has been slow, and the mature node, logic and foundry also continues to remain calm. In light of this situation, we forecast that the size of the WFE in 2025 will not change significantly from our previous forecast and will remain at the same level as 2024. There is no change in our assumption that the WFE will grow to about $120 billion in the next few years. On page 28, we summarize the business environment and our situation by application. First, we are confident that the NAND business will recover due to the increasing number of new product launches and increased capital investment for NAND.
Second, the full-scale mass production investment for the first generation of GAA has started smoothly, raising the growth potential for the future. Third, Company 1, a new POR for new high temperature activated annealing products for power devices. These are the three main reasons. In NAND devices, technology investment for device generation shift has led to a strong demand in the global market as well as in China. We expect demand for the prospective equipment for the local market to increase. In the DRAM market, although recovery for general purpose DRAM has been slow, the recovery of the advanced devices is expected to slow in the next generation of devices. Technology investment is expected to increase demand for equipment worldwide. In logic and foundry, major device makers are actively investing in equipment and for advanced nodes. We expect demand to continue to increase.
Investment in mature node is slowing down, although we expect a reasonable scale of investment to continue in the Chinese local market. In the power device market, investment continues in the Chinese market, and the demand for our product is increasing. We see this as the case. Despite the stagnation of investment in the global market, the first PORs of new products have been obtained, and as a result, we expect to see a contribution to sales as the market recovers. On page 29, we update the status of 3D NAND POR acquisitions discussed at our IR day. In the fiscal year ending March 2025, we expect that major manufacturers will continue to invest in technology for the generation of 200+ layers. Sales of equipment for the 200+ layer generation are expected to account for more than 80% of total NAND equipment sales. This includes the following.
We expect the investment to invest in capacity to expand the scale of production from the fiscal year ending March 2027 onward. We expect technology investment to be the main focus in the fiscal year ending March 2026. We are focusing on state-of-the-art mini batch deposition equipment, including new POR with more than 200 layers of generation. Batch ALD equipment and single wafer treatment equipment PORs have been finalized, and the high POR share is maintained. The new generation of devices is expected to replace conventional deposition equipment with the latest models. Due to the changes in devices, conventional deposition equipment must be replaced with the latest models or modified to meet the needs of the new generation of devices. We expect to see recovery of NAND equipment sales and the sales to increase. As devices will continue to be multi-layered, we offer our top-of-the-line mini batch ALD compatible equipment.
We will continue to upgrade our single wafer treatment equipment to meet customers' demand and with higher values. We hope to meet the needs of customers. On page 30, we update our status of DRAM POR. In fiscal year 2026, we expect that the major manufacturers will continue to invest in technology for the D1C generation. Equipment sales for the D1C generation are expected to account for more than 60% of total DRAM equipment sales. We expect technology investment to be the main focus of the generation. In addition to increasing the POR over batch ALD compatible equipment in the D1C generation, we are also working on the development of new products that can be used in 3D NAND. We also acquired the POR for the single wafer treatment equipment used in DRAM and expanding sales of equipment to countries around the world.
The size of the DRAM market is expected to continue to grow as devices continue to become finer and more complex with the D1D generation, D0 generation, and vertical channel transition DRAM. We expect to see more opportunities for our batch ALD. On 31, we have updated the status of GAA POR acquisition in the fiscal year ending March 2026. Major manufacturers are expected to make aggressive CapEx in the first generation of GAA. We have finalized our GAA first generation POR and have obtained a new POR at the gap field. The mini batch deposition system is the first of its kind in the logic field. Sales for the GAA generation in fiscal year March 2025 was lower than previously forecast due to the shift of some shipment to fiscal year March 2026.
Although we failed to reach the JPY 10 billion target, it is expected to increase in the year March 2026. As there will be the GAA second generation, we will see more of the adoption of the batch ALD compatible equipment. The interposed sales in March 2025 was at JPY 9.7 billion as expected. On the other hand, sales to device manufacturers are quite fluid, and we are not able to identify additional investment demand. Therefore, at March 2026, we are not including any revenue contribution from the interposes. However, we have been maintaining our POR, so we do have expectations for additional investment, and we're going to make more proposals for new applications and evaluation opportunities. On page 32, we updated the status for power devices. Currently, CapEx for power devices is stagnant in markets around the world, with the exception of China.
Our products are easy to operate and maintain, and have common spare parts, and have excellent energy-saving heaters. Sales of SiC/GaN power devices for the fiscal year that ended March 2025 have been growing strong due to the acceptance of their environmental performance and other factors. It increased by more than 80%. High Temperature Activated Annealing Equipment, which we have evaluated with our customers, and the POR share, which was about 30%. We are going to have seen our share to 40%. In the fiscal year ended March 2025, POR for 200 exceeded POR for 150 enabling us to further strengthen our foundation for business expansion, and we expect more increases to come when the market condition recovers. On page 33, we show the product mix in the fiscal year that ended March 2024. CapEx in cutting-edge devices was curbed due to sluggish market conditions.
On the other hand, the impact of increased CapEx in mature node has led to increased adoption in cutting-edge devices. The composition ratio of batch ALD compatible equipment and single wafer treatment equipment declined. In the fiscal year that ended March 2025, the composition of batch ALD and single wafer treatment equipment turned to an upward trend due to increased sales of equipment for advanced DRAM and advanced logic and foundry, and the recovery in sales of equipment for NAND. In the fiscal year that will end in March 2026, demand for NAND equipment will recover, and the batch ALD support equipment for mini batch deposition equipment will increase. In addition to the recovery, as we have acquired a new POR for DRAM, we will see the sales mix to increase.
It has recovered to 68% in the fiscal year that ended March 2025, and we will see the ratio reach 70% in the fiscal year March 2026, which is our medium-term target. As a result, the gross profit margin for the fiscal year ending March 2026 is expected to exceed that of the previous year. On page 34, we summarize our semiconductor device development roadmap, our catalyst, and our growth potential. There is no change in the strategies and medium-term target that we have explained. The medium-term target will be achieved when WFE reaches $120 billion, either in the fiscal year ending March 2027 or March 2028. As semiconductor devices continue to become more multi-layered, finer, more complex, and more three-dimensional, we will continue to develop and manufacture products that meet the needs of our customers, which is our strength.
We will continue to outperform the WFE growth in our sales. As opportunities to take advantage of batch ALD compatible equipment and single wafer treatment equipment increase, we will be able to achieve the growth. In addition, due to a decrease in the SG&A ratio accompanying an increase in sales, the pace of increase in adjusted operating income is expected to be faster than the pace of sales growth. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for the attention.
We will now move on to questions and answers. If you have a question, please press the hand-raise button on the screen. We will appoint you, and the appointed person will have the right to speak, and you will have a choice screen on your screenshot. Please unmute and start speaking then. Thank you very much for your questions. The first person, Mr. Shuhei Nakamura. Mr. Shuhei Nakamura you're appointed. Please unmute and start your question please.
Thank you very much. This is Goldman Sachs, Nakamura speaking. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes, we hear you. Thank you.
My first question is, for the new fiscal year's sales planning, three months ago, you said 5% increase in revenue. In comparison to that, what have been the changes you explained in detail? Overall, you raised the forecast for NAND, but DRAM and logic foundry interposers, you have lowered the forecast. The actual inquiries from customers, they already reflected such changes in the new fiscal year's planning. The tariff impact, you also said you included as well. What is actually happening lately? Are you considering as risk buffer only? I want to know that. Thank you.
First of all, the customers' forecast, setting aside tariff, customers' forecast changes reflected in the interposer forecast, which means interposer not decided, therefore not factored into the forecast. The other is for NAND. NAND investment is becoming a bit stronger. Based on the forecast and reflecting the forecast, we came up with this expectation, not because of the tariff or other external factors. On the other hand, the indirect impact of the tariff, slowdown of the market, and so forth have been factored into the general-purpose DRAM. That is, capacity investment could be contained. Therefore, for capacity investment, we voluntarily assessed and lowered the forecast. This is the sense.
That is clear. Thank you. One additional question that is on tariff. Ever since the talk of the tariffs, has there been any changes from your customers in their forecast or any change to the customers' investment plans? Ever since the talk of the tariffs, immediately after the tariff discussion, there have been many small movements, such as wait a little bit for the shipment and so forth. For the main investment plan, any reviews or any changes to the forecast?
No, that has not taken place.
Thank you. The second point is the fourth quarter order upside. I want to know the contents. NAND in China, in the fourth quarter, you have been expecting orders, but any additional orders that you did not expect in the fourth quarter?
In the fourth quarter, the fourth quarter orders, about JPY 14 billion to the upside, as we said earlier. The biggest part was China's NAND, large Chinese NAND manufacturer. This client's order was JPY 15 billion to the upside. On the other hand, Chinese major DRAM manufacturers' orders shifted a little, which was rather JPY 12 billion to the downside in Chinese mature logic customer, about JPY 5 billion to the upside, which means for China, Chinese customers in total, JPY 8 billion upside in orders. Another positive was service orders, about JPY 5 billion to the upside, a total of JPY 14 billion upside.
I see. Thank you. One thing to add, that is Chinese NAND January to March orders, JPY 15 billion to the upside, you said. On the other hand, in the new fiscal year, Chinese NAND sales outlook has not really changed from three months ago. What is your perspective here?
For orders, originally in the third quarter, we expected sales, and these expectations due to monthly timing differences delayed, but included in the sales for March 2026 due to the timing delay. No particular upside. This is as expected, already factored in. Please understand that the sales expectation is factored in as orders.
In this sense, the fourth quarter, JPY 77 billion, January to March orders, not because of Chinese upside, but upside coming from elsewhere, is that right?
As for orders, orders was on the upside for China and service.
All right then. Okay. All right. This is all for me from now. Thank you.
Thank you. We would like to take the question from Tetsuya Wadaki-san. Please unmute yourself and raise your question.
This is Wadaki from Morgan Stanley asking a question. If we can talk about the change in your outlook against other companies, I think different companies have different views. For China, outside of China, for other regions, where do you think the other CapEx to increase?
Mainly in South Korea, the large semiconductor companies, their NAND investment with the generation change, we are seeing the growth, stronger demand. Even though they are a Korean company, they have a plant in China, and at the local or the Chinese at the plant, they are going to have a generation shift. That is an active movement we are seeing. Also a U.S. memory maker in Singapore, above our expectation, that there is a stronger investment for generation change. We are seeing that to happen.
I think it's a difficult question for you to answer, but in this industry, we are seeing various changes so quickly. The global NAND, the makers, they are making the more aggressive investments, especially in China. Most likely, the demand will be in line with their expectation. Do you see any change in the content of the investment?
Based on the forecast we receive from our customers, we prepare our guidance, and for the later part of March 2026, there could be some other change. For the markets outside of China, we do not really see major substantial changes in the demand.
My second question is about your market share as you are still acquiring PORs. In the last, when you used to be Kokusai, you have gained so much of the market share. By utilizing your expertise, you were able to increase your market share. You have gained the market share from Applied Materials. Now you are also making steady progress in acquiring POR. Can you give us some of the stories so that it will be easy for us to understand what the current situation is?
ALD technology position, the technology, because we have a technological competitive advantage.
Because it is ALD, in terms of productivity, we do have some inferiority in the throughput. For that part, with the batch, the method which we are strong in, we can make up for the gap, and we can reduce the cost of our customers and still achieve the highly complex deposition. We have been focusing mainly on that part of our business. That has helped us to gain our market share. We believe that is the reason.
Thank you. You have been focusing on the batch ALD, and now that we have come to see the demand to catch up to the batch ALD.
Yes. For batch, there are batch with the many to be input, or with the Tsurugi, where the numbers of the input will be limited and pursue the high quality of the film. By having these other products, we have been able to gain our market share. That is the one reason. Thank you for your question.
Next is Yu Yoshida-san. Please unmute and start your question, please.
Thank you very much. CLSA Securities, Yoshida speaking. The outlook for this fiscal year, thank you very much for explaining in detail. I very much appreciate it. On top of that, I may be a bit in haste, but going into the next fiscal year, the market and your company's sales outlook, how is this going to change for March 2027? What is going to be the driver application? You have the midterm plan, but what do you see already to be changing going into the next fiscal year? Please comment on the changes going into the next fiscal year.
First of all, for logic foundry, there are aggressive investments into the advanced nodes for advanced applications. This will continue. Another expectation is one step back from the leading edge, that is semi-advanced. In these areas, increasing production in other locations, and also recovery of investments into the mature nodes, I think will be the expectation for logic and foundry. For DRAM, HBM DRAM will continue, but conventional multi-purpose DRAM demand for quantity will be recovering. DRAM CapEx for quantity or capacity can be expected. For NAND, currently, switchover into new generations is taking place. Therefore, quantity increase investment in new generation will also take place in the three applications. Capital expenditure can be expected, respectively. That is going to be the year of March 2027. To confirm, logic foundry advanced node investment to continue.
That would be the same level of investment continuing, plus production in other additional locations will be added.
Multi-location deployment, would that be at the very leading edge or minus one from the leading edge?
We do not know yet clearly. The biggest foundry makers' offshore deployment will take place for sure. This is what I mean.
Excuse me for confirmation, the DRAM part, yes, capacity increase can be expected in next fiscal year. For NAND, the current high level and the current recovery in investment, will this become higher in next financial year?
For NAND, wafer output increase. Rather than that, the new generational product production capacity increase will be taking place, not for wafer output, but new generation production capacity increase. That is going to be the sense.
I see. Understood. Thank you. Then my second point, in the mid to long term, and in the IRD, you talked about mid to long term. When we look at pace 2090, 31, compared to the level of expectation for March 2026, DRAM side, I think there can be upside expected. This fiscal year is much less greenfield investment in perspective. There can be a bit more upside. On the other hand, pace 31 for logic foundry, inclusive of mature node, you expect growth. Mature nodes, under the current environment and the competitive environment, I feel rather to be difficult. Considering the current starting point, how realistic do you think is the midterm goal? Please comment.
For the midterm plan, regularly, we review the midterm plan internally, but you particularly raised the question about DRAM, which we think is in our trajectory, and we can understand that you think that we can aim for higher. That is understandable. Of course, we should have high goals. In line with the external environment, we will be reviewing, yes. Further, for logic foundry, page 31 bar chart, you can see that there is yet quite a lot of challenges remaining. That is how it appears. This mature node part, plus, as I mentioned earlier, the FinFET generation production location expansions, we should be able to capture demand there as well. Therefore, for logic, as of this stage, we are not thinking of lowering our target. We think that the target is quite realizable.
Thank you.
Thank you for your question. Do we have any other questions? Please raise your hand. Yoshimura-san, Yoshioka-san of Nomura Securities, please unmute yourself and raise your question.
This is Yoshioka of Nomura Securities. I have two questions, please. My first question is that the China, the local, the Chinese, the demand where we are seeing major changes, rather than this year for March 2027, or can you share more medium-term outlook in March 2026? DRAM, there was a transition at the period for the investment, and for March 2027 and beyond, do you have any visibility of additional investment? For NAND, I think the recovery has been seen in March 2026. What is your evaluation of the sustainability of the current demand?
First, for the local Chinese manufacturers, DRAM demand. The largest DRAM manufacturer in China, their CapEx currently, as they only have one new plant. They are now in the low of their investment.
In China, they have a plan to add multiple other plants in China. When they start to implement those constructions, we can expect the continuous investment. For NAND, already, they already have plans to build new plants. For March 2026 and beyond, as for March 2027, we are expecting to see the level of the demand to continue at the current level.
Thank you very much. I understand. My second question is about some of the numbers I needed to check. For gate all around, previously on your IRD, and you expected the number to be above JPY 40 billion by March 2028. The medium-term target for GAA, has there been any changes to your outlook, or do you not see any problems to meet your target?
For now, the sales for GAA, we are not going to make any changes to our sales outlook. We believe we can achieve the target. To achieve that, we will be acquiring POR. We continue to make our activities to get more PORs. In March 2025, the number was a little less than JPY 10 billion that we have been talking about. In fiscal year March 2026, we will achieve JPY 20 billion for sure. Going beyond, we will be increasing our numbers to meet our medium-term plan.
In your presentation, we talked about acquiring the process for gap fill. In your IRD presentation, you did not mention the POR for gap fill. In that respect, has there been any upside to your original plan, or is that too much to expect?
Including the fact whether there has been upside or not, in order to drive sales from our POR, we still need to see our customers to invest in the certain scale. As we have been gaining some PORs, depending on the level of the investment of our customers, we can evaluate our contribution. Going forward, there is a possibility to see an upside.
Understood. Thank you very much for your explanation.
Thank you very much. Any other questions? Yes. Mr. Sean Park, please unmute and start your question. Mr. Park.
This is UBS Securities, Park. Can you hear me?
Yes.
From my side, Chinese NAND major client orders. I have a question here. First, I want to check the numbers. Earlier in the questions and answer, you mentioned from a Chinese NAND large client, January to March, order was JPY 15 billion upside to the expectation.
Was this JPY 15 billion upside to the expectation, or was it the total absolute amount of orders being JPY 15 billion? It was upside to the expectation. What was the total absolute value of orders from this Chinese client?
Yeah, absolute amount. In FY 2024, this large NAND manufacturer's orders was about JPY 18 billion.
Thank you. This Chinese NAND large client, their investment level, I think, is quite high. This year to next year, how much is the investment sustainable? This time, the order received will be switching to sales of March 2026. The orders will be contributing to sales in March 2026. Does the customer's plant become full?
Yes, the customer's plant will be full with this order, which means when the new plant will be made, will be built, the next business opportunity and commercial negotiation will start.
Whether there will be a big order coming March 2026 is up to the plant construction and the investment plan.
I see. Thank you. Finally, one more final question is a follow-up question. U.S. entity listed companies transactions. The METI guideline of Japan, you will follow, which means you will receive orders and will not have any problem continuing to do business.
You can continue to do business. Yes, for us, we abide by Japanese laws and regulations in our compliance. The existing exports we have today, we have no problem. We will be in compliance with the laws and regulations. It is not a problem.
I see that it's clear. Thank you very much. This is all from me.
We are very sorry. We do understand there are more people with questions, but due to time constraints, we would like to conclude the Q&A session.
If you have any additional questions, please contact us, and we will be sharing the information through our website. We would like to conclude our Q&A session. Thank you very much for participating in our presentation. We will be sending the questionnaire to all of you. Please cooperate. We would like to conclude the presentation today. Thank you very much for participating in today's presentation.