National Semiconductor Corp chief executive Gilbert Amelio is confident that the Santa Clara, California company will see record profits in fiscal 1994 to May. Speaking to Reuters following the annual meeting, he said that the company’s order book looked pretty good. It’s not quite as hot as it was six months ago, but it’s still very strong. Part of the reason it’s not as hot is because we’ve had to shut off orders on some of our lines because we can’t deliver in the near term. So that’s had a little bit of a dampening effect, he said. But he is still confident that there is business waiting as soon as the company is able to respond. On the semiconductor industry’s prospects next year, Amelio says he feels pretty good about the next six months. But he is slightly nervous about the macro-economy, worrying about political events, the new US tax law, which he believes will have significant effects on how consumers spend money next year, economic difficulties in Europe and the Japanese recession. On the positive side, he notes that interest rates are low, people are investing more, and focusing more on export markets. The company’s strategy would be to focus on providing technologies for shaping and moving information. NatSemi reported record profits of $130.3m on sales of $2.010m in fiscal 1993, the company’s first profitable year since fiscal 1988. Amelio told the annual meeting that it is realistic to expect 10% to 12% revenue growth to continue. I hope we can do better than that, as we have this past year, he said. NatSemi was now targeting growth.
