Dutch chip tech maker ASML sees fresh growth in 2020

Dutch microchip machine manufacturer ASML predicted Wednesday further growth in 2020 despite being caught in a row between Beijing and Washington over the delivery of a hi-tech system to China.

ASML, the world’s leading provider of systems used by the semiconductor industry to make chips, reported 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in net profit for 2019 and total sales of 11.8 billion euros, up eight percent year-on-year.

“We expect that 2020 will be another growth year, both in sales and in profitability,” ASML’s CEO Peter Wennink said in a statement.

Growth would be driven by demand for its Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) machine, the firm’s top-end product used to print chips for mobile phones and computers, the company said.

The firm’s results are closely watched as an indicator for the wider tech industry.

ASML has been waiting since June for Dutch government approval to deliver one of its EUV machines to an unnamed Chinese client amid US concerns that the “highly sensitive” technology could have military uses.

The US and Chinese ambassadors both last week put pressure on the Dutch government over the 120-million-euro ($134-million) machine.

Wennink made no mention of the row in the statement by the firm.

After spending billions of dollars on two decades of research and development, ASML sold its first 12 EUV machines in 2017.

ASML said it had total orders of 11.74 billion euros in 2019, compared to 8.18 billion euros in 2018, and had delivered eight EUV systems in the last three months of the year.

Based in Veldhoven, near the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven, ASML employs around 25,000 people and has offices in 16 countries.

smt/dk/rl