Derek, all - regarding margins. Excerpt from Q4 C.C.
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John [Somebody], First Boston
I was just curious; in a sense there has been some talk this has been some I guess push for pricing concessions
on the stepper suppliers. I was just curious if that sort of has fed back into you in any sense?
[Angus begins guffawing and continues while Mr. Somebody says "Well, someone has to ask, Bill"]
Akins:
And the answer is certainly yes, there has been feedback [Angus continues chortling in the background] along
those lines. And we certainly enjoy getting that kind of feedback. I guess I'll read a little report here from
December 22, 1997, a Lexis-Nexis exchange report quoting Gerard [God only knows what the last name is:
sounds like 'Hrdumshot'.] of ASML, who is their Chief Financial Officer, as saying that, uh what he is
saying is that ASML's board is examining by how much the company can raise the price of its deep-UV wafer
steppers, currently priced at about 6.5 million U.S. dollars each. "'To our pleasant surprise, Nikon recently
decided to raise the price of its laser steppers to about 6 million U.S. dollars each. That means we can raise
too, and we certainly will,' he said, declining to comment on how big the increase will be, but adding that it
will likely happen in January." So I think we're seeing pressures in both directions, but even our direct
customers are anticipating that they will be able to charge more money for their steppers as well.
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ASMLF has two very strong and viable competitors, depending on the source you use they are 2nd or 3rd in the stepper market share.
As the above statement indicates ASMLF margins are expanding.
This due to higher ASPs for the next Generation Lithography tools.
Derek or anyone, can an equivalent situation be drawn toward
Cymer and its market?
I think so, what do you guys think?
Regards,
Denis |
