Recent uncertainties related to the customer inventory chain in the game consoles market and anticipated weaker demand in the traditional Picogiga markets are behind the cautious stance adopted by the group for the fourth quarter, which the group now expects to be in line with the third quarter.

All three major game consoles use microprocessors designed on SOI wafers. Recent reports from North America indicate that stores have good levels of stock for both the PS3 and Xbox360.

Soitec's record quarter represents annual growth of 40.4% and 11.1% sequentially.  Group sales totalled 274.9 million Euros for the nine months year to date representing annual growth of 48.1% or above 50% in performance. 

Demand for 300mm wafers remains very strong with sales in the quarter increasing by 63.5% year on year or 74.5% in performance and 17.3% on a sequential basis, according to the company.  This volume growth underscores total third quarter wafer sales of 96.7 million Euros equal to annual growth of 43.0% or 51.8% in performance and 12.7% sequentially. 300mm wafers recorded an annual growth of 75.9% or 81.4% in performance.  Total wafer sales annual growth is 49.3% or 53.6% in performance, the company stated.

The Company also noted that it had recently renewed an ongoing SOI wafer supply contract valued at approximately 40 million Euros for the calendar year 2007. This order comes under the terms of the agreement for supply of 200 mm & 125 mm SOI wafers.