ASML Exceeds €9 Billion Sales in 2017
ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) has published its 2017 fourth-quarter and full-year results. The 2017 figures show net sales EUR 9.05 billion, and net income EUR 2.1 billion. ASML expects Q1 2018 net sales around EUR 2.2 billion and a gross margin between 47 and 48 percent.
For the first-quarter of 2018, ASML expects net sales around EUR 2.2 billion, a gross margin between 47 and 48 percent, R&D costs of about EUR 350 million, SG&A costs of about EUR 115 million.
CEO Statement
"ASML generated record sales and net income in 2017, helped by a strong fourth quarter. Due to industry strength, some customers requested earlier shipments of their lithography systems, which we were able to accommodate. Earlier-than-expected revenue recognition of two Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) systems contributed to the strong performance in the fourth quarter as well. With EUV sales crossing the 1.1 billion euro mark, 2017 was the year in which preparations for inserting EUV into high-volume chip manufacturing shifted into a higher gear. This is underlined by orders for 10 more EUV systems in the fourth quarter. Sales of our Holistic Lithography and Installed Base Management products also showed significant growth in 2017," ASML President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink said.
"These results reflect our technology leadership and the success of our comprehensive product portfolio as well as the strong growth fundamentals in our industry, which enable the continued innovation in personal electronics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and mobility. For 2018 we expect continued solid growth of sales and profitability."
2017 Product and Business Highlights
With a total of 161 new DUV systems shipped in 2017, a 21 percent increase from 2016, ASML's supply chain and factories were capable of significantly boosting output in reaction to increased customer demand, supporting fast ramps of advanced nodes in memory and logic. We also provided three customers with early-access versions of the TWINSCAN NXT:2000i, our most advanced immersion lithography system, for process development of next node devices. As a sign of the continuously increasing maturity of the NXT platform, the NXT:2000i system meets or exceeds all of its performance targets. For 3D NAND customers, we expanded our options portfolio to improve focus performance on high-topography wafers and handle strongly-warped wafers, both of which are typical for this application.
Our Holistic Lithography product portfolio showed growth in all product categories: computational lithography software products, metrology and inspection systems and process window control software products. ASML also broadened its product offering with the creation of an e-beam-based pattern fidelity metrology system, ePfm5, and shipped the first HMI eXplore 6000 EUV reticle defect inspection system.
ASML shipped 10 EUV systems to multiple customers in support of their plans to use the technology in high-volume manufacturing starting in 2018 and 2019, up from 4 shipments in 2016. ASML also demonstrated a number of technology milestones, achieving a throughput of 125 wafers per hour, demonstrating a full-size, defect-free EUV pellicle, and achieving EUV-to-DUV immersion overlay of 2 nanometers, which is in line with the requirement for the 5 nanometer logic node. Installed Base Management sales surpassed EUR 2.6 billion in 2017, an increase of more than 25 percent over the prior year. ASML continued to support China's expanding semiconductor industry. Our system sales to China grew by more than 20 percent in 2017. Alongside shipments to mainland fabs operated by non-Chinese customers, we are planning to ship to five domestic Chinese customers in 2018.
