ASML price hike boosts sales, profits in Q4
By Peter Clarke
Silicon Strategies
01/19/2005, 6:42 AM ET
LONDON — European lithography equipment vendor ASML Holding NV recorded strong results in the fourth quarter of 2004, with a booming profit on strongly increasing sales helping produce a healthy set of full year results, the company said Wednesday (Jan. 19).
Strong demand and strong increases in average selling prices (ASPs) were partly responsible for the good financial results. ASML was able to increase its ASP on new lithography machines by nearly a quarter compared with the previous calendar quarter, mainly due to move towards equipment that can process 300-mm diameter wafers. ASML said this was the first quarter in which 300-mm sales exceeded 200-mm sales.
However, incoming chief executive officer Eric Meurice sounded a note of caution about the company's prospects. On the one hand, he said, the unit order backlog had built considerably and includes high average selling prices because of the move to a 300-mm rich mix. This should help produce good results for ASML in 2005. But Meurice added that order push-outs could still materialize if chip markets perform worse than expected.
ASML stated that it made a net profit of 109 million euro (about $143 million) on net sales of 785 million euro (about $1.03 billion) in the fourth quarter
Sales were up 29 percent sequentially and 60 percent year-on-year. The profit increased from 41 million euro in the third quarter and a loss in the same quarter a year before.
For the year as a whole ASML made net sales of 2,465 million euro (about $3.23 billion) compared with net sales of 1,543 million euro (about $2.02 billion) in 2003. The 2004 net profit, after the strong contribution of the fourth quarter, was 235 million euro (about $308 million) compared to a loss of 160 million euro (about $210 million) in 2003.
The order backlog as of December 31, 2004, was 131 lithography systems valued at 1,691 million euro (about $2.21 billion)
"Q4 2004 was a quarter that showed strong momentum as sales increased 29 percent from the previous quarter and 60 percent year-to-year," said Meurice, in a statement. "For the first time, ASML shipped more 300-mm systems in a quarter than 200-mm tools. Our technology leadership moved up another notch in Q4 2004 when customers announced the production on ASML tools of the world's first complex devices using immersion lithography."
Net sales for 2004 included the shipment of 216 new and 66 refurbished machines and revenue from field and service options of 290 million euro. Net sales for Q4 2004 included the shipment of 62 new and 19 refurbished machines and revenue from field and service options of 75 million euro, the company said.
The Q4 2004 average selling price for an ASML system was 8.8 million euro (about $11.5 million), while the average selling price for a new system was 10.7 million euro (about $14.0 million). These reflect increases of 17 percent and 22 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.
Regarding the 2005 outlook, Meurice said: "We have accumulated a significant backlog for deliveries in Q1 and Q2 2005: our unit backlog is larger than that of December 2003, and the average selling price is significantly higher, thanks to a richer 300 mm product mix. However, we remain cautious in our forecast as customer order push-outs are always possible, if overall semiconductor demand were not to materialize as expected."
The order backlog as of December 31, 2004 comprises 131 lithography systems with an average selling price of 12.9 million euro. Of that backlog, ASML plans to ship 60 systems in Q1 2005 with an expected average selling price of approximately 10.7 million euro. |
