By Victor Goury-Laffont
(Reuters) - Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASM International beat its third-quarter revenue guidance Tuesday, with a strong contribution from the Chinese market.
The Dutch group reported 622.3 million euros ($659.14 million) in revenue during the quarter, against an initial target of between 580 and 620 million euros.
ASMI's third-quarter revenue is up from 609.8 million euros last year and above the 601.92 million euros expected by analysts, according to LSEG data.
“ASM delivered robust results amidst continued soft market conditions,” president and chief executive Benjamin Loh said in a statement, adding that "the timing and strength of recovery is still uncertain."
New orders came in at 627.4 million euros, below last year's 675.5 million euros but near the top-end of the group's guidance for the quarter.
Fellow Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding (AS:ASML) NV last week reported lower-than-expected orders in the third quarter and warned of flat sales in 2024.
Chinese and U.S. restrictions on chip exports and lackluster sales figures on mobile and PC markets have led to uncertainty in the sector.
ASMI does not expect "any material additional impact" from the latest update on restrictions announced by the U.S. last week.
Jefferies analysts see the company "more than compensating" any losses from the restrictions with gains from a sector-wide turn to new technology.
The Dutch group is well-positioned to benefit from growing demand for gate-all-around transistors, which allow for finer control over the flow of current and lower energy consumption, and single-wafer atomic layer deposition (ALD), a manufacturing technique using ultra-thin layers of material.
Loh says the group expects the first "meaningful" orders for GAA transistors to come in the next quarter.
Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker and an ASMI client, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Samsung (LON:0593xq) are amongst chipmakers with plans to adopt GAA and ALD technologies.
($1 = 0.9441 euros)