ASML sinks as analyst says it's likely to cut EUV forecasts 'significantly'
Michael Vi
ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) shares fell around 1% in mid-day trading on Wednesday after an analyst said the Dutch semiconductor equipment company would likely to cut its shipment forecasts for its EUV tools "significantly" next year.
In a blog post, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that ASML (ASML) could slash shipments for the extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, technology, due to a number of reasons, including lower demand from Apple (AAPL) for 3 nanometer chips.
Kuo said that shipments for the MacBook and iPad have declined significantly, with the decline likely due to the end of work-from-home demand and "diminishing" appeal in Apple Silicon and Mini-Led features.
"Looking ahead to 2024, Appleâs [3 nanometer] demand is negatively impacted by the lack of growth drivers for MacBook and iPad," Kuo wrote.
EUV technology creates wafers significantly faster while also at a smaller scale.
Kuo also said that 3 nanometer demand from Qualcomm (QCOM) is likely to be lower-than-expected due to the fact that Huawei has stopped using chips from Qualcomm and the higher-than-expected rate of Exynos 2400 in Samsung's (OTCPK:SSNLF) smartphones. 
He also said that demand for Samsung's 3GAP+ and Intel's 20A (INTC) nodes is "lower than expected."
Lastly, the three largest memory makers - Samsung, Micron (MU) and SK Hynix - are not expected to unveil expansion plans until at least 2025 and perhaps as late as 2027.
"The current market consensus is that the semiconductor sector will bottom out in [the second-half of 2023]," Kuo added. "However, it needs to monitor closely whether this bottoming timeline would be pushed back to [the first-half or even the second quarter of 2024]."

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