ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Krish Sankar: Got it. Got it. And then as a follow-up, I just wanted to touch again on the fast shipment. I understand last year and into this year, customers are scrambling to get litho tools and, therefore, they’re willing to take fast shipments. In an ideal world, you’d like fast shipments, too. But if things do slow down a little bit, do customers really want fast shipment? Wouldn’t they rather have you test the tool in your factory before you ship it to them?

Peter Wennink: Well, customers, you could argue, they don’t care whether it’s a fast shipment or not a fast shipment, they want a tool at a certain moment in time. And that’s whether it’s fast ship or a regular ship, they don’t care. Now we did the fast shipment because we’re late, and we were late and the demand was higher than what they — what we could make. And this actually is a driver for still the fast shipment this year because our demand is higher than what we can make. That has changed. So if the customer says you can ship the tool, as long as they know the date of which the tool will arrive, it can be installed and can be signed off. That’s the date that they’re actually interested in. And as we see it today, there is still a higher demand than what we can make. So it’s the same situation.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Alexander Duval at Goldman Sachs.

Alexander Duval: Congrats on the strong results. Firstly, I wondered if you could just update us on how much bigger demand is than supply. You’re obviously still positive on the demand backdrop, even though you talked about utilization and machines having gone down. I think in the past, you talked about more than 30% excess demand versus supply. So is that still the case? And then secondly, a housekeeping item, just on OpEx. You’ve guided for 1Q, which is perhaps a little bit higher than expected. Can you help us put in context what that means for full year OpEx? And specifically, a bit more color on what you’re investing in and what that means for harvesting future opportunities and your margin potential?

Peter Wennink: Yes. I’ll do the first part of the question, and Roger will take the second part. I think on the 30% excess, the amount of supply actually is more like 50%. So now that has come down, but it’s still significantly double digit above our capacity. So — and like I said earlier in an answer to an earlier question, yes, of course, we also see the reflection of the demand curve because of the weakness in, for instance, the consumer demand clearly. So some of that over-demand has gone away, but it’s still there. And it was actually not 30%, it was more like 50%. And it’s come down now to — it’s still significantly double digit. Roger?

Roger Dassen: Yes. Alexander, on the OpEx question, I think the numbers that we gave you are, I think, a pretty good proxy for the full year. I think what I — if you take them together, it’s close to 19% that I would model for OpEx, so for SG&A and R&D combined for the full year. Of course, we had significant hiring in the course of Q4. Those people are added to the year, if you like, in terms of headcount. Of course, we had increases in wages. And of course, that kicks in from Q4 to Q1. But that’s the rate I would assume for the full year. In terms of what do we get for that, very good question. So on the SG&A side, obviously, this is in line with the growth of the company. So you continue to see us operate around 4%-ish SG&A percentage of sales.

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