Over the next few weeks, the French Minister of Industry Gerard Longuet will be urging the European Commission to lobby the Japanese government and semiconductor companies harder for increased microprocessor purchases from European companies, reports La Tribune-Defosses. The article quotes an unidentified source at the ministry saying By force of negotiation, the US managed to improve its position in Japan. It’s now our turn to show them we exist. Even without extra lobbying, the Franco-Italian semiconductor maker SGS-Thomson Microelectronics BV is seeing its sales in Japan double this year (representing 3% of total revenues), and they are estimated to reach approximately $1,600m, the article goes on. We have specific circuits that interest the Japanese. The European share of the Japanese market could easily pass the 10% mark, an SGS-Thomson spokesman told the paper.
