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

To: niek who wrote (1158)	7/19/2006 10:10:45 AM
From: niek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42736

ASML CEO says memory overcapacity risk is limited Wed Jul 19, 2006 AMSTERDAM, July 19 (Reuters) - Dutch chip equipment maker ASML said on Wednesday that the risk of overcapacity in the fast-growing flash memory chip market was limited, even as new entrants were building more production than needed. "The flash business is booming. It's attracting a lot of new entrants and new players. Everytime that happend, you will have some duplicate capacity. For us it will represent some 10 percent of (our) total business. It's not dangerous. It's only a part of our business and demand for flash memory is growing fast so that capacity will be taken up fast," Chief Executive Eric Meurice said in a second quarter results conference call. Machines to produce NAND flash memory chips make up 25 to 30 percent of ASML's business, Meurice said. "It's a bit more than half of the memory business," he added. Flash memory chips are used in cell phones, MP3 players and digital cameras. He also said analysts should be optimistic that gross margins, targeted at 40 percent, could edge higher as the focus shifted to more expensive machines throughout the year and next year. "We're working very hard at cost of goods. You could be optimistic," he said.