FILE PHOTO: ASML headquarters is seen in Veldhoven, Netherlands August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV reported on Wednesday third-quarter earnings of 1.9 billion euros ($2.01 billion), in line with analyst expectations, and said it expected 2024 sales to be about flat.
Analysts had forecast net profit for Europe's largest technology firm at 1.81 billion euros for the three months ended Sept 30, according to LSEG data. The earnings figure for the year earlier period had been 1.7 billion euros.
"The semiconductor industry is currently working through the bottom of the cycle and our customers expect the inflection point to be visible by the end of this year," Chief Executive Peter Wennink said in a statement.
He reiterated that the company expected sales growth of 30% for all of 2023.
However "customers continue to be uncertain about the shape of the demand recovery ... we therefore expect 2024 to be a transition year."
ASML dominates the market for lithography systems, machines that each cost hundreds of millions of euros are used by chip makers such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel to help create the tiny circuitry of chips.
($1=0.9457 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
