ANP
NOS News•today, 08:37•Changed today, 10:14
China was the most important sales market for ASML in the past quarter. Nearly half of all sales, 46 percent, went to that country. A year earlier, in the same period, 15 percent of ASML’s chip machines went to China, while in the second quarter of this year the figure was still 24 percent.
From next year, the chip machine maker will be allowed to sell fewer machines due to restrictions imposed by the Dutch cabinet. The company is also affected by the dip in the chip sector.
In an explanation, Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen says that there is less demand from other customers, allowing Chinese manufacturers to buy more machines. He emphasizes that “all shipments are within the limits of export controls.”
New restrictions
ASML has never been allowed to sell its latest type of chip machine, the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV), to China. This year, under pressure from the United States, the Netherlands added new restrictions. These concern certain models from the Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) series. The company has already indicated that these restrictions are not expected to have any financial consequences.
ASML CEO Wennink was a guest in Nieuwsuur in September, where he discussed, among other things, the chip war with China:
ASML CEO Wennink about the chip war
Yesterday the US announced new measures again. As a result, ASML believes it will be able to sell fewer machines to China in the future, but emphasizes again that this will not affect the company financially.
Decreasing demand
At 6.6 billion euros, turnover in the past quarter was slightly higher than the same period last year, and the same applied to profit. The fact that ASML is suffering from declining demand is mainly visible in the number of orders that have been added, worth 2.6 billion euros. That was 8.9 billion euros a year earlier.
CEO Peter Wennink says that customers from other countries are uncertain about the recovery of the chip sector. Major manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung and TSMC purchase machines for the semiconductor industry from the Veldhoven company.
If a manufacturer orders a machine from ASML, it can take months to more than a year before it is delivered. As a result, the orders say more about what the situation is now. Sales in China concern orders from 2022 and even before, says financial CEO Dassen.
Wennink expects that ASML will have to take a pause next year. However, he does count on significant growth again from 2025.
2023-10-18 06:37:24
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