When persistence pays off: why ASMI is doing so well

ASM International is on a roll. While the semiconductor industry has been experiencing a cold spell since mid to late 2018, the Almere-based semiconductor equipment maker has been posting one quarterly sales growth after the other. Last July, front-end sales even reached an all-time record – and the orders keep pouring in. Many of those are for ASMI’s atomic layer deposition (ALD) systems, which at the moment are its best selling product line, CEO Chuck del Prado noted in a conference call with investors, though he added demand is generally healthy in other businesses as well.

ASMI is currently tasting the fruits of perseverance. The company got into the ALD game as early as the late nineties, when the semiconductor industry still did not have a need for it. After buying the Finnish ALD pioneer Microchemistry in 1999, ASMI worked with Intel for years to replace silicon oxide as the gate dielectric.