TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electron Ltd, the world's No.2 chip equipment maker, reported a second straight quarterly loss as its sales halved, and forecast a record annual loss even as it seeks new revenue from solar equipment.

The global economic slump is hitting demand for electronics and forcing chip giants Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to rein in spending.

Equipment makers are now searching for new revenue streams, with even chip gear leader Applied Materials Inc predicting a quarterly loss and more jobs cuts.

Tokyo Electron expects a record 63 billion yen (S$964.6 million) operating loss this financial year as orders, though improving, stay weak. That's in line with an average estimate for a 61.5 billion yen loss by 17 analysts polled.

The company sees a full-year net loss of 38 billion yen as sales slide 41 percent.

The gap between those chip makers with and those without the capital to invest in new technologies in the next two years will be critical, executives said.

"Demand is rising for cutting edge equipment from logic chip makers, and we expect demand to improve from the strongest memory chip makers in the second-half of the financial year," Tokyo Electron's new president, Hiroshi Takenaka, told a news conference.

Chip gear orders, down 80 percent in January-March from last year, would rise 30-50 percent in the current quarter, he said. But that would be nowhere near enough to make a profit.

Tokyo Electron plans to cut 30 billion yen in fixed costs this year, after cutting 40 billion yen last financial year. "A full recovery will take considerable time.

In memory chips, only a handful of companies will be able to invest," added Director Yukio Saeki.

Tokyo Electron's backlog of chip gear orders - a gauge of the steam building up for future sales - was at 73.7 billion yen, down 60 percent from a year ago.

Slammed as orders for its equipment hit 7-year lows, Tokyo Electron booked a January-March operating loss of 9.5 billion yen, a sharp reversal from a profit of 34.9 billion yen last year. Quarterly sales fell 54 percent.

Its quarterly net loss was 2.1 billion yen, down from a profit of 18.2 billion yen.

Ahead of the results, Tokyo Electron shares closed down 2.2 percent, beating a 4.1 percent drop on the Tokyo bourse's electrical machinery index.