ASML Beats Earnings Forecast, Sees 25% Sales Growth This Year

ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest technology company, beat fourth-quarter earnings forecasts on Wednesday and forecast a rise of more than 25% in 2023 sales despite possible new curbs on its exports to China, Toby Sperling reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The maker of equipment to produce semiconductors has struggled to meet demand as top customers TSMC, Samsung, and Intel are all engaged in major expansions.

The maker of equipment to produce semiconductors has struggled to meet demand as top customers TSMC, Samsung, and Intel are all engaged in major expansions. It said its order backlog had grown to a record 40 billion euros ($43.62 billion) at the end of the year.

CEO Peter Wennink said that although the economic outlook for 2023 is clouded by worries over the economy and growing semiconductor inventories, customers also see conditions improving toward the end of the year and China's economy recovering after the end of COVID-19 curbs.

"That means that the demand is still higher than what we can make," he said. The numbers come a week after US President Joe Biden and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte discussed possible new export restrictions on some of ASML's sales to customers in China due to security concerns.

The company had China sales worth 2.16 billion euros in 2022 accounting for 14% of its total revenue.

It was the firm's third biggest market behind Taiwan and South Korea. Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML reported a fourth quarter net profit of 1.82 billion euros, up from 1.77 billion a year earlier, on revenue of 6.43 billion euros.

That beat analyst forecasts for a net profit of 1.70 billion euros on sales of 6.38 billion, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

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