ASML expands in Berlin and hires hundreds of employees to meet the increasing demand.

To meet the rising demand, ASML is investing around 100 million euros in expanding its Berlin plant and plans further investments of a similar scale in the coming years. Additionally, the workforce will be increased from the current 1,700 to 2,300 employees. This makes Berlin the only production site of the Dutch company in Germany.

This expansion in Berlin is not a coincidence, but a strategic measure to meet the growing demand. The German plant supplies essential parts for the highly complex EUV machines, including special plates for processing the wafers from which semiconductors are made. The managing director of ASML Berlin, George Gomba, emphasizes the unique expertise of the site in glass and ceramics, which is indispensable throughout the entire corporation.

The success of ASML is also reflected in the numbers: In the third quarter, the company saw a 16 percent increase in sales compared to the previous year, while profit rose by eleven percent. Only the order intake in the last quarter declined, which analysts say is only temporary. They expect strong order dynamics again from the fourth quarter of 2023, particularly from the customer TSMC, who wants to use the most advanced manufacturing processes due to ASML's technological leadership.

The long-term prospects for the company are also promising, as there are more chip factories under construction or planned worldwide than ever before. ASML is indispensable for many semiconductor manufacturers. Analyst James Hanford from Comgest emphasizes that the creation of overcapacities in the industry benefits ASML and similar companies.

In Germany, new factories are also to be established, as shown by Intel's planned investment in Magdeburg of 30 billion euros or TSMC's plant in Dresden for 10 billion euros. ASML also came to the capital three years ago through the acquisition of Berliner Glas, a long-term supplier.

The Berlin location will continue to play an important role for ASML in the future, as a process is being developed here that will secure the company a technological advantage over competitors like Canon. The so-called High-NA-EUV process enables a higher numerical aperture of 0.55 compared to the previous EUV systems with a value of 0.33. A single machine is expected to cost several hundred million euros and will be delivered to the customer Intel in two years.

The site manager, George Gomba, emphasizes that ASML is not only a supplier, but is also increasingly relocating research to Berlin, thus seeing the site as an important part of the group. In customer service, the employees are also in direct contact with customers worldwide.

The major fire two years ago at the factory showed how important the Berlin location is for ASML, as the entire production was disrupted for months. For this reason, smoke detectors will also be used in the new hall. Therefore, ASML is expanding not only its manufacturing but also research and development at the Berlin location, thus benefiting from the semiconductor industry's construction boom.