应用材料表示，它在第二季度面临与冠状病毒危机有关的供应链限制因素，该危机危及其收入并将其刻在其利润中。但是该公司表示，希望随着供应链的反弹和合同制造商推动升级工厂的计划，它希望在下半年收回收入。
The company's sales leaped to $3.96 billion from $3.54 billion a year ago, as demand from contract chip manufacturers offset its supply chain challenges. Profits totaled $755 million, or 82 cents per share, falling slightly short of analyst estimates of around 89 cents per share. Applied Materials said its profit margins improved to 44.2% from 43.2% in the first quarter last year, when it earned $666 million, or 70 cents per share, in net income.
“While the situation remains fluid, based on the visibility we have today, our supply chain is recovering and underlying demand for semiconductor equipment and services remains robust,” Gary Dickerson, Applied Materials' president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We still believe that our semiconductor business can deliver strong double digit growth for our fiscal year,” he said on a conference call with analysts last week.
应用材料is the world's largest seller of machinery used to manufacture chips and serves as a barometer for the global chip business, which has been dented by uncertainty and other fallout from the novel, lethal virus. The threat resulted in lockdowns that shut down factories in the United States, Southeast Asia, and China. The lockdown measures have also made moving goods and parts around the world more of a logistical challenge.
Dan Durn, the company's chief financial officer, said that it faced supply chain constraints in the second quarter of the year linked to lockdowns in the United States and Southeast Asia. He said that the shutdowns impeded the supply of critical parts used in its products and delayed shipments to its customers. Applied Materials said that constraints linked to the virus caused it to lose more than $650 million in sales in its semiconductor division.
应用材料说，这也感受到了运输延迟的痛苦。总部位于加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉（Santa Clara）的供应商将其大部分设备运送到乘客飞机腹部的未组装零件中。但是，由于美国，欧洲和亚洲航空公司最近几个月停止了服务，因此该公司不得不租用费用昂贵的货运飞机。迪克森说，这一变化给其利润施加了压力。
他警告说：“这将是一个长期的问题。”“我认为这将在可预见的未来与我们同在，我们可能会使我们增加的物流成本与我们同在。”他说：“我们继续与供应商紧密合作，以确保他们能够满足我们的需求。当我们进入第三季度，我们的供应链仍然是一个关键的重点，并在半导体和服务业务中获得了纪录的积压。”
应用材料在3月表示，由于疾病扰乱了其供应链和制造业务，它将撤回其第二季度的销售预测。由于病毒经济后果的不确定性，它还扣留了本季度的销售预测。它出售了数千万美元的生产工具，其客户可能希望通过推迟升级到其生产工厂来节省资金。
这家硅谷巨头希望在2020年下半年收回损失的收入，因为供应链恢复了，记忆芯片市场的改善。该公司表示：“我们的供应商都能够恢复运营，并且正在恢复正常产出。”应用材料表示，它认为与2020年第二季度相比，当前季度的半导体单元的销售额可能会在“高单位”中增长。
应用材料表示，第二季度的销售额有所改善，因为订购芯片业务的越来越多的客户通过数十亿美元的建立生产线燃烧。包括TSMC，英特尔和三星在内的主要芯片制造商正在争先恐后地推出更快，更小，更便宜的薯条。它还警告说，由于全球汽车行业的回调，铸造厂市场中的“弱点”。
全球最大的合同芯片制造商TSMC计划在2020年将其资本支出增长约10亿美元，使其总额超过150亿美元。TSMC为从AMD和Qualcomm到Apple和Huawei的客户建造芯片，正在升级其生产线，以根据其最先进的7纳米节点来满足对芯片的需求。它还开始根据5纳米米制造芯片，以供客户测试。
Intel's capital spending soared to $16.2 billion in 2019 as it struggled to resolve its supply shortages and upgrade more of its production plants to its most advanced 10-nanometer production process, which has been bedeviled by long delays. Intel said last month that, in spite of the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, it plans to proceed with most of its long-term investments in the 10-nanometer node and other advanced nodes in 2020.
应用材料is also facing blowback from the escalating trade battle between China and the United States. The US government said on Friday that it would tighten its control on the supply of chips to Huawei, the world's second largest smartphone maker. Once the sanctions are imposed in late 2020, companies using U.S. software and tools to build chips for Huawei or its affiliates would need licenses from the Commerce Department.
The rules could also strike TSMC, which builds chips to order based on Huawei's designs with tools from Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA Tencor and other American firms. The sanctions place more pressure on Huawei, which the U.S. government last year added to a blacklist, requiring American firms to obtain licenses before selling chips or other parts to Huawei, which is reportedly TSMC's second largest customer behind Apple.
杜恩说：“市场上有一些优点和缺点。”“尽管情况仍然流畅，并且宏观经济的影响仍然未知，但我们的客户仍然致力于他们的技术路线图。我们将保持警惕，保持与客户保持亲密关系，并准备在环境发生变化时做出回应。”
