Korean Firms Account for 29% of ASML’s sales
ASML, the world's only producer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure equipment, has strengthened its partnership with Samsung Electronics. As a consequence, Korea's share of ASML’s total sales has risen to 30 percent. Samsung Electronics plans to further strengthen its relationship with ASML by introducing additional EUV equipment to fourth-generation 10-nm (1a) DRAM production.
Korean companies accounted for 29 percent of ASML’s sales in the first quarter of 2020 (2.4 billion euros). Their proportion increased 13 percentage points on quarter and 4 percentage points on year. Most of the sales were accounted for by Samsung Electronics, which introduced EUV equipment massively in recent years.
ASML's first-quarter sales and net profit (391 million euros) grew 9.5 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively, compared to the same period of the previous year. This is because the Dutch company enjoyed strong equipment sales to Samsung Electronics even amid the spread of the new coronavirus.
Samsung Electronics has been making most of its partnership with ASML, too. Samsung Electronics introduced an EUV process for the first time in the foundry industry in 2019 based on cooperation with ASML. In March, the Korean semiconductor giant completed a DRAM mass production system based on an EUV process. Samsung Electronics is also a major shareholder with a 1.5 percent stake in ASML. The value of ASML rises, the value of Samsung Electronics' stake in the company also jumps. According to the business report for the fourth quarter of 2019, the value of the stake in ASML held by Samsung Electronics surged nearly twice to 2,155.4 billion won in one year.
However, some industry insiders say that cooperation between Samsung Electronics and ASML will not be easy due to restrictions on foreign entry to each country and difficulties in securing a logistics network due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.