UPDATE 1-Advantest posts operating loss, orders weak

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TOKYO, July 25 (Reuters) - Japan's Advantest Corp (6857.T), the world's No.1 maker of chip testers, tumbled to a quarterly loss as inventory-shackled chip makers reined in spending, and forecast a first half loss.

Advantest, which competes with Teradyne (TER.N) and Verigy Ltd (VRGY.O), is fighting declining revenues as chipmakers put off spending on testing equipment amid an industry-wide slump.

Advantest is under pressure to find new revenues or new costs to cut, while its U.S. rivals Credence Systems Corp CMOS.O and LTX Corp LTXX.O plan to merge to pare their losses.

Advantest said orders in April-June came to 18.2 billion yen ($169.9 million), down 66 percent from the previous year and hitting the lowest in six years, underlining the tough outlook.

Advantest forecast an operating loss of 5.5 billion yen in April-September, down from a 24.65 billion yen profit the previous year and missing a consensus estimate of a 3.5 billion yen loss by four analysts polled by Reuters.

For April-June, Advantest reported an operating loss of 1.83 billion yen, down from an 11.68 billion yen profit in the same period the previous year.

It tumbled to a net loss of 152 million yen, down from a profit of 9.95 billion yen the previous year, on sales of 26.46 billion yen, down 54 percent.

Advantest, which plans to roll out a new tester for computer memory chips later this year, is hoping for a recovery in demand from makers of dynamic random access memory as well as orders from logic chip makers. Shares in Advantest, whose T2000 test systems are used by Intel Corp (INTC.O), closed down 3.8 percent at 2,310 yen, underperforming the Tokyo bourse's electrical machinery index .IELEC.T, which fell 3.1 percent.

Advantest's share price shed 25 percent this year through Thursday, while the electrical machinery index .IELEC.T fell 11 percent. (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi)