Worldwide shipments of mobile phones will likely reach 420 million units in 2000, far outpacing the 280 million shipped in 1999, the Japanese unit of U.S. high-tech consulting firm GartnerGroup Inc. said Monday.

The projection was made as the group unveiled survey results showing that shipments reached 104.6 million units in the July-September quarter of last year, GartnerGroup Japan K.K. said.

The high growth is attributable to a surge in new subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, as well as steady demand in Europe to update models.

Ranking top in the third quarter of 2000 was Nokia Group of Finland, which took 30.6 percent of the global market, followed by Motorola Inc. of the United States with a 13.3 percent share and Ericsson of Sweden with 9.7 percent.

Chip growth projected

Japanese builders of semiconductor manufacturing equipment are expected to enjoy an average of 17.7 percent sales growth over the next four fiscal years, with a surge in fiscal 2000 expected recede the following year, an industry group said Monday.

Active demand linked to the information technology boom is expected to raise sales in the year ending in March by as much as 72.9 percent to 1.95 trillion yen, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said.

The growth in demand will likely slowdown thereafter, however, to a 4 percent rise to 2.03 trillion yen in fiscal 2001 and a 1.4 percent fall to 2.003 trillion yen in fiscal 2002, due to a slowing U.S. economy and a fall in demand for personal computers and mobile phones.

Sales in fiscal 2003 are forecast to grow by 8.1 percent to 2.17 trillion yen, however, thanks to the anticipated launch of an advanced chip production technique that uses larger silicon wafers 300 mm in diameter, the group said.