By Toby Sterling and Nathan Vifflin
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -ASML, the largest supplier of equipment to computer chip makers, reported weaker-than-expected new bookings in first-quarter earnings on Wednesday but had strong sales to China despite U.S.-led restrictions on what it can export.
Europe’s largest technology company left its full-year financial outlook unchanged, with 2024 revenue flat from 2023 levels of 27.6 billion euros ($29.3 billion), although it is bracing for a strong growth by 2025.
Net profit in the first quarter was 1.22 billion euros, down from 2.05 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2023, but slightly better than expected, according to LSEG data. Turnover amounted to 5.29 billion euros, a decrease of 7.24 billion euros.
Sales of ASML’s lithography systems to customers in China accounted for a record 49% of the total in the first quarter, or about 2 billion euros, the company said in an investor presentation published alongside the profit figures.
The new bookings amounted to 3.6 billion euros, well below the 5.4 billion euros that analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
“Our full-year 2024 outlook is unchanged, with the second half of the year expected to be stronger than the first half, in line with the sector’s continued recovery from the recession,” outgoing CEO Peter Wennink said in a statement in which he describes 2024. as a ‘transition year’.
Wennink, who is retiring, will be replaced by Frenchman Christophe Fouquet at the company’s annual meeting on April 24.
ASML dominates the market for lithography systems, machines that can cost hundreds of millions of euros each and use light beams to help create microscopic circuits.
It will benefit from new chip factories planned with support from governments in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.
According to forecasts by industry group SEMI, China will add the most chip production capacity in 2024, followed by Taiwan and South Korea.
US-led export restrictions aimed at undermining China’s ability to make its own advanced chips have led Chinese chipmakers to focus on building older generations of chips, using equipment not covered by export control policies.
($1 = 0.9414 euros)
($1 = 0.9427 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Tom Hogue, Jamie Freed and Sonali Paul)
