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Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (872)	11/13/2003 2:16:54 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43499

UPDATE - ASML chief sees strong upturn, high margins Thursday November 13, 11:58 am ET By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent (Adds new product detail, CEO quotes, shares, sector context) AMSTERDAM, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Dutch chip equipment maker ASML (Amsterdam:ASML.AS - News; NasdaqNM:ASML - News) said on Thursday he was upbeat about his market and expected to return to profit margins achieved during the previous upturn. "We'll find out how good the market will be over the next 12 to 18 months. I think it will be quite good, personally," Doug Dunn said during a presentation to analysts. He said that ASML, the world's largest maker of semiconductor lithography machines which map out electronic circuits on silicon wafers, could return to the high margins of 1999 and 2000 when the volatile chip industry was at a peak. "Can we get back to high margins? Absolutely. We'll use the upturn and our cost savings programme to return to the high margins of the past," Dunn said. ASML's highest gross margin was 44 percent, with an operating margin of 26 percent. Dunn's comment echoed bullish remarks from the world's largest chip equipment maker Applied Materials (NasdaqNM:AMAT - News), which supplies different machinery from ASML. Its chief executive said on Wednesday he spotted a broad desire to buy chip equipment. ASML supplies all major semiconductor manufacturers outside Japan, including the world's largest chip maker Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (Taiwan:2330.TW - News), the world's largest contract chip maker. ASML SHARES ASML shares were up 0.4 percent at 15.93 euros after a day of analyst briefings, mostly centred around new technologies to project chip circuitry. In the United States chip stocks (Philadelphia:^SOXX - News) fell 1.08 percent, retracing a strong rise on Wednesday. Analysts said Applied Materials was the last big chip company to report results and investors would have to wait until January for fresh information about a sector recovery that could help drive stocks. Over the last three years, the $150 billion-a-year chip industry has endured its worst downturn amid huge overcapacity and flat demand. But sales of mobile phones and computers have at last started to rise strongly this year, forcing chip makers to invest in new equipment. ASML, which has some 45 percent of the market for chip lithography machines which form the heart of the production process, is still cautious on the exact timing of a recovery because many chip makers remain hesitant to invest. The company's president for lithography, Stuart McIntosh, said there would be many chip producers that would wait one or two quarters longer than they should, which could result in a run on equipment when these firms finally started buying. ASML showed advances in new technologies, like immersion and maskless chip lithography, which enable the manufacturing of smaller and cheaper chips and will be commercial in 2004 and 2005 respectively. The technologies could be implemented in the company's existing workhorse Twinscan, which ASML for the first time compared with machines of its competitors Nikon (Tokyo:7731.T - News) and Canon (Tokyo:7751.T - News) of Japan. The company said it had achieved most of the performance targets it had set for itself a year ago. The cash proceeds of improving inventories, accounts receivable, asset management and other elements amounted to 568 million euros ($664.6 million), exceeding a target of 500 million.