Atlas Copco AB (PNK:ATLKY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Kim: Hi. Good afternoon. I was wondering if we could spend a little bit of time on PT. If you could talk us through what you’re seeing at utilization levels for the various aspects of semiconductor manufacturing. Any color you could give us on logic versus memory here and possible expectation of utilization at breaks hitting 90% plus would be helpful? Thank you.

Peter Kinnart: Yeah. I think when it comes to the difference between memory and logic, for us that doesn’t make a huge difference. Of course, demand will be different from different segments, but ultimately, for us, our products are used in both the different applications and we could say we are agnostic to then the application for which it’s going to be used. When it comes to utilization in the fabs, it has been low and I think apparently too low to spark the investments and to launch a lot of orders and that has been going on for a while. We believe that currently the utilization rates are probably going up gradually. As Mats already indicated, we see that in the number of pump returns on the service side, for example, that are somewhat improving.

And so, we in that sense that there’s maybe a little bit of positive news that gradually there is an improvement in the utilization of the fabs with our customers. And of course, there will be a point where they reach a certain level where they feel comfortable enough to expand further their current installations, and that, of course, would then trigger orders for us. The timing of that is very difficult to establish. It’s more guessing than knowing, I think. Some are very optimistic and are talking about the beginning of the second half, Q3, some are talking about Q4 and then the slightly more pessimistic tone is probably spilling into 2025. To be honest, we can only say that we don’t really know. But the best we can do is to try to make sure that we are as prepared as we can and we have done quite a lot of investments over the last several years to make sure the capacity is there, is available, is ready to deliver.

Delivery times have gone down now, of course, with supply chain improving quite substantially. And so as a result, we are looking forward to that moment to come, but we don’t know exactly when that will happen.

Mats Rahmström: We don’t know the insight of our customer, but from experience, when we have seen the uptick again, it’s when they reach utilization between 85% to 90%, then they seem to be interesting to make the next investment. And the good thing is that we have never, ever seen more constructions in semi, but not activated them. But there’s still an opportunity going forward for this.

John Kim: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Rizk Maidi from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Rizk Maidi: Yes. Hi, Matt and Peter. Just quickly, can we talk about the equipment delivery pushouts? I think Peter mentioned this when he talked about inventories being up. This has been a theme this quarter for other companies that have reported. Outside of China, where — what areas have you seen this and are you concerned at all about sort of slower invoicing, overcoming quarters now that backlogs are normalizing and equipment delivery times are coming back to normal?

Mats Rahmström: The pushouts that we have seen so far has not turned into cancellation, which I think is good. They just need more time. We have seen it in semi, of course. I also think some of the EV program in the Western world, some have been canceled, some have pushouts as well and we are talking about these bigger programs. Of course, we could force the customer to take the equipment, but that’s not our intention. We like to keep a very solid relationship with them and sometimes we get a little bit exposed in the inventory, but we don’t see a big concern. It’s more of a timing thing for us.

Rizk Maidi: Okay. Thank you very much. Best of luck, Mats.

Mats Rahmström: Thank you, Rizk.

Peter Kinnart: Thank you, Rizk, for that question. With that, I think, we have reached the end of the queue, and I think, we’ve hopefully been able to answer all the questions you have. Of course, should you have more questions, you know where to find us. Our Investor Relations team is very happy to help further with any further topics or questions. As we will need to prepare ourselves for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, we will end the call here and look forward to being in touch with you again in the course of this quarter or later. Thank you very much for attending. Wishing you a fine rest of the day. Bye-bye.

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