Top 5 fab equipment makers post double digit growths in latest quarters

The global top five fab equipment makers all recorded strong growths in their latest quarters.

Applied Materials, ASML, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron and KLA all recorded double digit growths in their revenue and operating income compared to a year ago.

The companies benefited from high demand for their fab equipment due to the global chip shortage.

Applied Materials, for its fiscal third quarter (May to July), posted US$6.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 41% from the previous year.

The company’s operating income jumped 75% over the same time period to US$2.01 billion.

Its operating margin rate for the quarter was 32.5%, a 7.3 point increase from the previous year.

Applied Materials said the strong demand for computing chips were continuing and that the company expects good results for the next couple of years.

ASML recorded 4.02 billion euros in sales and 1.230 billion euros in operating income during the second quarter, an increase of 21% and 37%, respectively, from the previous year. Its operating margin rate was 30.8%.

The company is the sole manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment used in advanced chip production. It supplies them to chip giants Samsung and TSMC.

ASML said it sold 9 EUV systems during the quarter. It has 8.3 billion euros of orders as of the second quarter, an increase of 75% from a year ago. Around 4.9 billion euros of orders were from EUV systems.

Lam Research, for its fiscal fourth quarter running from March to June, posted US$4.145 billion in sales and US$1.326 billion in operating income, an increase of 48% and 76%, respectively, from the previous year. Its operating margin rate stood at 31.7%.

The company said it saw strong demand from 3D NAND flash manufacturers.

Tokyo Electron, for its latest quarter running from April to June, recorded 452 billion yen in revenue and 69.1 billion yen in operating income, an increase of 44% and 27%, respectively, from the previous year. Its operating margin rate was 15.3%.

KLA, for its April-June quarter, posted US$1.925 billion in sales and US$633 million in operating income, an increase of 32% and 54%, respectively, from the same time period in 2020. The company’s operating margin rate was 32.9%. KLA said it expects strong demand for chips to continue up to next year.