A worker produces chips at a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Binzhou, China on June 4, 2024.
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Asian chip stocks fell on Wednesday after Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML posted disappointing sales forecasts, which dragged down global shares in the sector.
Shares of a Japanese semiconductor manufacturing company Tokyo Electron Recorded the biggest losses, down nearly 10%. Renesas Electronics Down more than 3% AdvantestA testing equipment supplier fell 0.8%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co And Han Hai Precision Industry – known internationally as Foxconn – fell to 3.3% and 1.6% respectively.
South Korean chipmaking heavyweight SK Hynix, which makes high-bandwidth memory chips for AI applications for Nvidia, traded 1.6% lower. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of dynamic random-access memory chips, saw its shares fall 1.9%.
Losses in the region’s semiconductor sector also dragged down major indices. of Japan Nikki 225 lost more than 2%, Gosby of South Korea fell 0.6% Taiwan Weighted Index fell 0.7%.
In a statement on Tuesday, Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML expected net sales for 2025 to fall in the lower half of the range between 30 billion euros and 35 billion euros ($32.7 billion and $38.1 billion). previously provided.
The company said net bookings for the September quarter were 2.6 billion euros ($2.83 billion) – below the LSEG consensus estimate of 5.6 billion euros. Net sales beat expectations of 7.5 billion euros.
The company’s CEO warned of caution among customers and said the recovery was “more gradual than previously expected.”
After ASML fell 16%, other global chipmakers fell. Nvidia fell 4.7% and AMD lost 5.2%.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg Biden administration officials have reportedly discussed restricting sales of advanced AI chips from Nvidia to certain countries in the interest of national security, further dampening investor sentiment around the semiconductor industry.
ASML faced a tough business outlook in China due to US and Dutch export restrictions on its exports.
CFO Roger Dassen said Tuesday that he expects the company’s China business to show a “very normal percentage of our order book and our business.”
“So we expect China to account for about 20% of our total revenue for next year,” he said. In its June-quarter earnings presentation, ASML said 49% of its sales came from China.
ASML’s business in Asia will continue to face headwinds, Eugene Hsiao, head of China equity strategy at Macquarie Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
While it makes “a lot of sense” for ASML to continue working with China from an “economic perspective,” he said, “there are broader issues between governments that go into economic issues.”
— Ryan Brown contributed to this story.
