AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Shares in Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML fell 9% on Thursday after its biggest customer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) cut its forecasts for capital spending by 10% this year, citing in part equipment delays.
Half of the reason for TSMC’s cut was due to medium-term planning and “the other half is due to continued tool delivery challenges”, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang told reporters on a media call.
A spokesperson for ASML, Europe’s largest technology company, said they could not comment ahead of third-quarter earnings on Oct. 17. Shares in the company were down 9.1% at 376.50 euros ($364.94) at 1352 GMT.
ASML, which dominates the market for the lithography tools used by chipmakers such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel to create the circuitry of computer chips, has struggled to meet demand for its products.
In 2021, 44% of ASML’s sales were to customers in Taiwan.
At its second quarter earnings release in July, the company said it had registered record bookings but CFO Roger Dassen warned that the company was facing “increasing supply chain restraints”.
ASML has forecast third quarter sales of 5.1 billion -5.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion-$5.2 billion).
In a note, analyst Marc Hesselink of ING said that he expected a “very limited impact” to ASML from any downturn in semiconductor markets.
“The revenue risk is mainly due to push-outs,” he said. “The main short-term risk we see is on the margin. Supply-chains remain constrained and inflation is pushing up component prices.”
($1 = 1.0317 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Susan Fenton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
