Dutch chip technology leader ASML records profit growth

The company, a maker of microchip manufacturing machinery, said its net profit in the first three months of this year nearly tripled to €1.96 billion ($2.1 billion) from €695 million in the same period last year.

Sales almost doubled to 6.7 billion euros.

ASML CEO Peter Wennink said he expects strong growth to continue this year, with net sales up more than 25%.

Last month, the Dutch government announced plans for new export controls on deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography, a technology that prints microcircuits on microchips in which ASML specializes.

The government said the export controls were intended to prevent military use and protect the Netherlands’ “unique and leading position” in such technology.

The Netherlands had come under pressure from the United States to impose such restrictions to limit its access to Chinese technology.

Wennink said the company is “having different signals depending on demand from different end-market segments as the industry works to bring inventories to healthier levels.”

“While some of our larger customers are timing their demand further, we are seeing other customers absorbing this shift in demand, especially in DUV at more mature nodes,” he added. rice field.

Despite this, “overall demand still exceeds our production capacity this year and we currently have a backlog of over €38.9 billion,” the CEO said.

CVO/ABX/LTH/RL