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ASML, the chip manufacturing equipment supplier, insisted that the semiconductor industry was on track to recover in the second half of the year even as its first quarter disappointed investors.
The Netherlands-based group, whose lithography machines are relied upon by chipmakers, said on Wednesday that net bookings, which includes orders placed by customers but not yet delivered, dropped to €3.6bn in the first quarter from €9.2bn in the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts had expected bookings of more than €5bn.
ASML has been hurt by the semiconductor industry’s slowdown as well as sanctions curbing its ability to sell in China.
Peter Wennink, ASML’s long-standing chief executive who steps down later this month, reiterated that he saw 2024 as a “transition year”, with trading improving in the second half as the industry “continued [its] recovery from the downturn”. The company left its guidance for 2024 unchanged.
Shares in the group were down 6 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.
The company’s first-quarter net sales fell to €5.3bn, down from €6.7bn in the same period a year earlier and €7.2bn in the fourth quarter. Net income in the quarter fell 37 per cent from the same period a year earlier to €1.2bn.
Almost half of ASML’s system sales were to China, despite attempts by the US to restrict shipments of its high-end machines there. Its lithography machines use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light to etch circuits on to silicon wafers, enabling ever smaller transistor designs that make for more powerful chips.
Wennink will be replaced by Christophe Fouquet, a chip industry veteran who has been at ASML since 2008.
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