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Veldhoven (pte021/13.04.2005/12:15) - Dutch chip manufacturer ASML http://www.asml.com has announced big rises in first quarter results, with profits almost five times those from a year ago. However, as the company reports in a press release on its website, it is not expecting a similar boom in the chip branch for this year as was the case in 2004. The company's revenue climbed 51 per cent to 685 million euros, and its profit rose by 21 per cent to 100 million euros. However, compared to the final quarter of 2004, the results and profits from the first quarter of 2005 were lower.
"ASML executed well and delivered another solid quarter. Sales were up 51 per cent from one year ago. Gross margin reached 40 per cent. Net profit rose to almost 15 per cent of sales. The average selling price for new systems jumped by 15 per cent from the previous quarter," said Eric Meurice, president and CEO of ASML. "Our order intake for the quarter reflects the current cautious state of the semiconductor industry, yet we have booked more systems quarter on quarter," he added.
According to the company, in the first quarter of 2005, it shipped 50 new and nine refurbished systems and generated revenue from field and service options of 53 million euros. The average selling price in this period for an ASML system was 10.7 million euros, a 22 per cent increase over the average selling price in the fourth quarter of 2004, when it was 8.8 million euros. The company's order backlog sank to 107 lithography systems. At the end of 2004, ASML's backlog comprised 131 systems.
"The current slow improvement in semiconductor fab capacity utilisation makes a sharp recovery of the industry unlikely in 2005. Therefore, we expect Q2 2005 order intake to be lower than that of Q1 2005," said Meurice. "Although we remain cautious as our visibility beyond Q3 is limited, the level of order intake and our track record of operational improvements are such that we are confident of continued profitability in each of the remaining quarters of 2005," he concluded.
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