Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch chip-making equipment supplier ASM International plans to pass on any cost increases related to tariffs to its value chain, including customers, its CEO and finance chief told Bank of America in a meeting, a report on the analysts' takeaways showed on Thursday.
Europe's second-largest supplier of semiconductor equipment said that thanks to its manufacturing flexibility, it "won't be at a disadvantage compared to competitors", the note distributed by the bank reads.
ASM makes wafer fab processing equipment which is a key to chipmakers like Intel or TSMC as they adopt a leading-edge transistor design called Gate-All-Around.
But in other segments, it competes with major U.S. players such as Applied Materials and LAM Research. It is also the most exposed to the U.S. market among its European peers, including ASML and BE Semiconductor.
ASML had said as part of its first-quarter reporting that U.S. chipmakers would bear the "lion's share" of tariff costs.
ASM's management told the analysts that its Chinese sales may reach the high end of its guidance range for 2025, or be slightly above that, the report showed.
The company has guided for Chinese equipment sales to make up a low-to-high twenties percentage of its total sales in 2025.
ASML's chief financial officer had similarly said in its last earnings presentation that Chinese demand was stronger than expected in 2025.
(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
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