On January 3, a fire broke out at ASML's Berlin plant, and the company reported significant damage.

The optics company, formerly Berliner Glas, which was taken over in 2020, manufactures parts for the chip machines that the high-tech group from the Netherlands supplies to chip manufacturers all over the world.

Analysts were concerned, but ASML now reassured the presentation of the annual figures: The incident in the plant will not have a "significant impact" on sales of the new EUV machine generation, said CEO Peter Wennink.

However, the fact that it will have an impact can be read from the annual forecast, which states that the incident has been included in the forecasts.

Klaus Max Smolka

Editor in Business.

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The machines work with extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) and ASML currently has a virtual technological monopoly on this. The group from Veldhoven benefits from the needs of the semiconductor industry, continued its steep business rise in the past year and expects this to continue in the current year: In 2022, sales are expected to grow by around a fifth, including the effect of the fire damage in Berlin.

Last year, sales rose by a third to 18.6 billion euros, and net profit rose disproportionately by two thirds to 5.9 billion euros.

Orders with a volume of more than 26 billion euros were received, about half for EUV machines and half for the current DUV generation.

ASML has a market share of more than 85 percent for DUV machines.

ASML shares were up in early trading on Wednesday.

ASML is the largest producer of the lithography machines, which in their modern version typically cost hundreds of millions of euros.

Customers include most chip companies, such as Intel and TSMC.

With a good 263 billion euros, ASML is by far the most valuable listed company in the Netherlands and the second most valuable in the euro zone.

The Berlin fire in early January broke out in the area where parts for EUV machines are produced, but the smoke damaged a neighboring building.

As far as the DUV devices are concerned, there were initially some disturbances, according to the information.

"But we don't think it will impact our 2022 sales," Wennink said. "Because of the diligence and creativity [of the staff], we currently believe that we can manage the situation and that we will not have a significant impact on the EUV sales in 2022.”

The EUV machines enable smaller and more powerful chips.

The question remains whether - and if so when - the technology can be sold in China.

After political intervention by the United States, the Dutch government has not yet issued an export license there.