Semiconductor lithography equipment manufacturer ASML Holding (Veldhoven, Netherlands) published its 2018 second-quarter results for the six-month period ended July 1, 2018. Q2 net sales were $3.19 billion dollars (2.74 billion euro), net income was $680 million dollars (584 million euro), with a gross margin of 43.3%. ASML expects Q3 2018 net sales between 2.7-2.8 billion euro and 47-48% gross margin.
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"Our second quarter sales were above expectations including higher than forecasted EUV [extreme ultraviolet] sales," said ASML president and CEO Peter Wennink. "Gross margin was slightly above our guidance, reflecting the strength of our DUV [deep-ultraviolet] and Applications business and progress in EUV profitability."
He continued, "In Q2 we shipped four EUV systems, one more than we forecasted, as Logic customers prepare for the ramp of next node devices starting later this year. We recognized revenue for seven EUV systems. We are on track to supply 20 EUV systems this year. Focused execution is enabling an acceleration of the availability and productivity roadmap. This will provide an even stronger foundation for our EUV business and will support a 2019 shipment plan of at least 30 systems."
Wennink concluded, "Our DUV business is driven by a memory market that continues to require a significant number of lithography systems at least throughout this year and into 2019. After an excellent first half of 2018, we expect the second half to be stronger, with improved profitability and continued growth from Q3 to Q4."
Highlights of Q2 included that in its EUV program, ASML demonstrated four-week availability of well above 85% on a number of new NXE:3400B systems. ASML is executing several programs to improve consistent availability to over 90% in 2019 with further improvements planned in the years beyond. In its DUV lithography business, ASML started shipment of the TWINSCAN NXT:2000i, which the company says includes several hardware innovations that will enable on-product overlay of 2.5 nm in mix-and-match use with EUV for the 7 and 5 nm logic nodes.
