In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday, Carlo Bozotti president and CEO of STMicroelectronics, said he identifies signs of recovery in Asia and stabilisation in Europe and expects ST to beat the semiconductor market in 2009.

Commenting on ST’s market share, Bozotti declared: “Last year, we reinforced our position as number one in Europe and number five in the world. If the market declines by 25 per cent in 2009, according to analysts, I hope that our decline will be limited to 15 to 20 per cent.”

In his answers, Bozotti seemed quite optimistic. He indeed stated: “We see encouraging signs in Asia, except in Japan where the market remains weak. We also see signs of stabilisation in Europe and in the United States, after a 35-per cent drop in the first quarter. This follows a massive clearance of mobile phones and consumer electronic devices. Now, stocks are built up. The question is to know if this recovery will last and be supported by households’ consumption. I think we bottomed out in the first quarter, even though our fabs operate at slightly more than 50 per cent of their production capacity.”

Late in January, ST outlined a major cost-cutting effort in 2009, including a plan to shed 4,500 jobs. In total, ST said it plans to reduce its costs by over $700 million in 2009. The actions are focused on “resizing’’ the company’s manufacturing operations and streamlining expenses. The company also set a capital spending budget of about $500 million for 2009, representing a 50 percent reduction in comparison to 2008.

In the interview published in Le Figaro, Bozotti briefly explained why the French and Italian sites have been less affected by the harsh restructuring plan.

“Fabs in France and in Italy are indeed less impacted although we have been compelled to implement short-time working,” answered Bozotti. “We did not start a redundancy scheme there but proposed incentives to punctual departures such as early retirements.

STMicroelectronics needs its fabs in Crolles, Rousset, Tours, Catania and Agrate. We have, however, rationalised our production in Morocco, the United States and in Malta.”

In France and in Italy, ST employs 20.000 people.