Keeping track of customers: ASML vs. Canon
ASML passes Canon in stepper sales, based on Dataquest's 1997 estimates
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at 7:30 a.m. EST/4:30 a.m. PST, 1/8/98
By J. Robert Lineback
SAN JOSE -- Dutch-based ASM Lithography overtook Japan's Canon Inc. in
photolithography equipment sales last year, making ASML No. 2 in wafer stepper revenues behind Tokyo-based Nikon Corp., according to new market estimates from Dataquest here.
In the market researcher's top 10 ranking of semiconductor equipment suppliers, Dataquest estimated that ASML's sales grew 28% to $930 million in 1997, while Canon's dollar-based revenues fell 14% to $795 million. Nikon's revenues slipped by 3% to $1.650 billion, said analyst Clark J. Fuhs, director of Dataquest's semiconductor equipment, manufacturing and materials program. Fuhs presented his 1997 ranking at the annual Industry Strategy Symposium held this week in Pebble Beach, Calif.
ASML equipment shipments have been growing rapidly since the early 1990s when it held less than 10% of the worldwide photolithography revenues. The company set out to overtake Canon and become No. 2 in wafer steppers sales (see story from SBN's April 1997 publication).
"We knew we doing pretty well last year because customers were switching over to our equipment," said Evert B. Polak, vice president of marketing for ASML, based at the company's headquarters in Veldhoven, The Netherlands.
If Dataquest's preliminarily ranking holds, ASML became the world's fifth largest semiconductor equipment supplier, rising from sixth place in 1996.
While ASML overtook Canon in dollar-based revenues, the Japanese stepper maker remained ahead in number of systems shipped, Fuhs said, without giving out specific numbers.
Responding to Dataquest's 1997 estimates, Canon officials in the United States questioned whether all announced orders for ASML steppers in South Korea were delivered in 1997, before the current economic crisis hit late in the year. However, Canon officials did concede that the company lost market share in 1997, based on dollar revenues. However, Canon still believes it is No. 2 in lithography unit shipments.
Dataquest's preliminary 1997 ranking of semiconductor capital equipment again placed Applied Materials Inc. at the top with $3.650 billion in revenues, a 5% gain over the previous year. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) again was ranked No. 2 at $2.890 billion, a 12% increase over 1996.
Others in Dataquest's ranking were: Nikon at $1,650 billion (-3%); KLA-Tencor at $1.070 billion (12%); ASML at $930 million (28%); Lam Research at $910 million (-20%); Canon at $795 million (-14%); Novellus at $645 million (60%); Hitachi at $625 million (-7%); Eaton at $570 million (3%); and Silicon Valley Group at $570 million (1%). |
