Yahoo Finance ASML Says Chip Controls Won’t Have Much Effect on 2023 Earnings
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Europe’s biggest semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding NV said an agreement between the Netherlands, the US and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China shouldn’t have a “material effect” on forecast it has published for this year.
“In combination with the current market situation, we do not expect these measures to have a material effect on the expectations that we have published for 2023,” ASML spokesperson Monique Mols said in an emailed statement. “What we need now is stability and reliability in our industry to avoid further disturbances in the global semiconductor industry.”
The US secured an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China in talks that concluded Friday in Washington, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The agreement, aimed at undercutting Beijing’s ambitions to build its own domestic chip capabilities, would extend some export controls the US adopted in October to companies based in the two allied nations, including ASML, Nikon Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd.
“It is our understanding that steps have been made towards an agreement between governments which, to our understanding, will be focused on advanced chip manufacturing technology, including but not limited to advanced lithography tools,” Mols said. “Before it will come into effect it has to be detailed out and implemented into legislation which will take time.”
The company on Wednesday projected sales of €6.1 billion to €6.5 billion ($6.6 billion to $7.1 billion) this quarter.
Read: Biden Wins Deal With Dutch, Japan on China Chip Export Curbs
The Netherlands will prevent ASML from selling to China at least some immersion lithography machines, the most advanced kind of gear in the company’s deep ultraviolet lithography line, the people said. The equipment is crucial to making cutting-edge chips. Japan will set similar limits on Nikon.
The agreement is a victory for Biden, who is seeking to constrain Beijing’s military advancement by cutting the country off from the world’s tiniest semiconductors. But ASML’s chief executive officer, Peter Wennink, has warned that the US campaign could have unintended consequences, predicting that China will develop the technology itself instead of importing it.
“That will take time, but ultimately they will get there,” he said Wednesday in a interview with Bloomberg News at ASML’s headquarters in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.
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