Feb. 2--Like many companies across the country, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates has yet to find the bottom of the global economic downturn.

The Gloucester-based microchip equipment maker has announced that, as expected, it had lost $13.6 million in the last three months. And in an earnings statement released last week, the company said that, as bad as things have been recently, expectations for sales in the next three months are even worse.

Varian predicts an operating loss of between $21 million and $25 million for the second quarter of 2009, with revenue dropping 75 percent from the same period a year ago -- from $255 million in the second quarter of 2008 to around $65 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2009.

Company executives said the recent downturn in revenues was a result of the global recession and rapid withering of business in its corner of the technology sector.

"The rate of deterioration in the semiconductor capital equipment industry had been unprecedented," Chief Operating Officer Gary Dickerson said in the prepared statement. "We have implemented significant cost reductions across the company to make sure that we continue to remain in a strong financial position regardless of the length of this downturn."

To try to minimize losses as orders for its equipment slow and revenues shrink, Varian has slashed costs with measures including shutdowns and layoffs.

In the statement, Chief Financial Officer Bob Halliday said the company would cut costs by an additional $10 million from the first quarter to the second quarter.

At the beginning of the year, Varian had laid off more than 600 people from its peak of 2,000 employees in the fall of 2007 to around 1,400 employees. Varian did not provide more specific details of layoffs in the future.

The downturn has also put in jeopardy Varian's plans to build two 30-story wind turbines at its Blackburn Industrial Park Plant.

The windmills were granted permits from the city in October 2007 and at that time it was estimated that the project could be built in 16 months.

Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com

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