Over the course of 50 years we have grown to become a global company that develops innovative solutions for our customers, and manages the best interests of our investors, our employees, society and other stakeholders. Read on to discover what we achieved in 2018.
The demand for smaller, faster and cheaper semiconductor chips continues to rise, driven by advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, smartphones and the Internet of Things.
Our technology is the first step towards making it all possible, as our R&D investment in new materials, new products and new processes means we can help our customers develop their technology roadmap, and further extend Moore’s Law.
In 2018, this led to the introduction of the Synergis ALD tool, which leverages the core technologies from our Pulsar and EmerALD ALD products for high productivity thermal ALD applications. The new Synergis tool allows us to address more ALD applications and therefore increases our served market. Together with our other products and services, this contributed to our strong financial results, which included:
We operate in a fast-paced industry that continues to reshape the world, and our innovative technology enables the semiconductor industry to achieve advancements in computing, communications, energy, transportation, medicine and beyond.
To ensure that we can continue to make a difference to our customers, employees, and company stakeholders, in 2018 we concentrated on the following three key elements of our strategy.
In addition to our fundamental R&D efforts, we continuously expand and deepen our strategic cooperation with key customers, suppliers, chemical manufacturers, and research institutes. This approach enables us to remain innovative and swiftly meet the changing demands of our customers.
We are a key player in the deposition equipment segments for ALD and epitaxy, and a focused niche player for PECVD and vertical furnaces. As a leader in the segment, ALD has turned into a key growth driver for our business, from which we support virtually all of the leading customers in the semiconductor industry. Our newest ALD tool, Synergis, is designed to address a wide range of existing and new ALD applications, effectively increasing the market we serve.
In addition to our internal optimization programs, we are working with our suppliers to improve fundamental quality through statistical methods and process controls. In addition to addressing the technology needs of our customers, we also focus on further increasing equipment throughput and equipment reliability, thereby lowering the cost per wafer of our wafer processing systems.
In 2018, we achieved revenue growth of 11% reaching a record high revenue of €818 million, with sales increasing mainly in the logic, DRAM and analog segments. By industry segment, our 2018 revenue stream was led by memory, closely followed by the logic and foundry segments.
While our ALD product lines continued to be our key sales driver in 2018, accounting for more than half of total equipment revenue, our other product lines also contributed strongly. In our epitaxy product line we increased sales, following the strong growth we achieved in 2017, and we saw additional sales increases in PECVD and vertical furnaces.
Our industry experienced continued growth in 2018, with worldwide semiconductor industry sales increasing by around 14%. This was driven by high memory prices and broad-based electronics demand for cloud services, mobile devices, automotive and industrial applications. These drivers helped the wafer fab equipment market grow by around 10% in 2018.
Our 2018 sales grew to record levels, reaching €818 million. ALD continued to be the key driver, although the other product lines also made a strong contribution.
We benefited from a further increase in wafer fab equipment spending following the very strong market growth in 2017. Our operating profit increased to €124.3 million from €113.2 million in 2017, while the operating profit margin remained stable.
New bookings increased by 22% in 2018 to €942 million, with equipment bookings for ASMI as a whole led by logic, followed by foundry and then memory. Total research and development (R&D) expenses, excluding impairment charges, decreased by 1% in 2018 compared to 2017, mainly as a result of higher capitalization of development expenses.
Our 2018 sales grew to record levels, reaching €818 million. ALD continued to be the key driver, although the other product lines also made a strong contribution.
We benefited from a further increase in wafer fab equipment spending following the very strong market growth in 2017. Our operating profit increased to €124.3 million from €113.2 million in 2017, while the operating profit margin remained stable.
New bookings increased by 22% in 2018 to €942 million, with equipment bookings for ASMI as a whole led by logic, followed by foundry and then memory. Total research and development (R&D) expenses, excluding impairment charges, decreased by 1% in 2018 compared to 2017, mainly as a result of higher capitalization of development expenses.
During 2018, we returned approximately €607 million to shareholders in the form of dividends, share buybacks and the capital return. This was up from €281 million in 2017 and €140 million in 2016.
Over the 2010-2018 period, we returned more than €1.6 billion to the financial markets through dividends, share buybacks, return of capital, and buyback of convertible bonds.
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In 2018, we paid a dividend of €0.80 per common share and we will propose to the forthcoming AGM to declare a dividend of €1.00 per share for 2019. The proposed 2019 dividend will mark the ninth consecutive year that we have paid a dividend.
ASMI is engaged in manufacturing products of increasing complexity in a challenging business environment, which requires quick responses to customized solutions. A robust supply chain management system, with a diverse scope and global footprint, is necessary to meet our business ambitions. This requires our global supply chain organization to continuously drive operational excellence by employing policies, initiatives, and tools to proactively engage our suppliers to ensure business compliance and continuity. These include regular supply and financial risk monitoring, performance management, and commitment to the tenets of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) from our key business partners. ASMI's global supply chain organization is committed to maintaining a supply portfolio that is value creating, sustainable, and ethical.
Our mission at ASMI is to build a world-class supply chain that provides our customers with the most technologically advanced products, services, and global support network, at a competitive cost of ownership. We partner with hundreds of suppliers who provide goods and services used to manufacture our products and serve our customers. They play a critical role in enabling us to achieve our mission, covering a broad spectrum of commodities across more than 20 countries and regions worldwide. The main categories include contract manufacturers, precision machining, gas systems, robotics, electronics, and high-tech chemistries. These suppliers manufacture advanced materials to stringent tolerances and performance attributes, as required to achieve our design specifications and requirements. This approach enables us to remain innovative and swiftly meet the challenging demands of our customers.
Our supply chain is a critical part of our end-to-end value chain, with our customers and other stakeholders increasingly expecting greater transparency along the entire supply. This includes how our products are manufactured, whether labor standards are upheld, assurance that workers are treated fairly, and reducing the impact our supply chain has on the environment among other requirements.
As part of our supplier management process, we have developed a critical and strategic supplier risk assessment process based upon a multitude of criteria, including the key aspects of Corporate Responsibility. We assess our supply chain annually, and identify our critical and strategic suppliers based on key elements such as, the amount we spend with them, how many similar or alternative suppliers exist, and the amount of time we would need to switch suppliers if we had to.
These critical and strategic suppliers are proactively managed with a comprehensive initiatives program, aimed at driving business compliance, risk management, supply continuity, and performance among other requirements. The best performing suppliers are recognized in our Supplier Day forum which is held annually to communicate and align supply chain goals and objectives.
We use the RBA Code of Conduct as our Supplier Code of Conduct, enabling us to extend our commitment and approach to corporate responsibility, and we have established management systems for our critical and strategic suppliers that match the industry-standard supplier assessment process. Having integrated corporate responsibility into our supply chain management process, we believe that we can create long-term business value and further mitigate supply risk.
We communicate our expectations and measure conformance to our expectations with our critical and strategic suppliers. This approach manages our supply chain risks by focusing on the areas where a majority of our materials come from and spending occurs.
Our critical and strategic supplier requirements include their commitment to:
These requirements are outlined on our public supplier management web page.
We believe that building a sustainable supply chain begins with solid business partnerships. Our goal is to find the most capable suppliers in the industry, treat each supplier with respect, and conduct business fairly across all facets of our operations.
By adhering to these principles, we believe we can forge lasting partnerships that will provide long-term benefits to ASMI, our suppliers, our customers, and our stakeholders.
Suppliers who share our vision for an integrated supply chain model routinely demonstrate a commitment to solving our customers’ challenges. They understand industry dynamics and recognize the need to partner in developing solutions that improve the overall strength of ASMI.
When faced with a particular opportunity, they will quickly use their industry expertise to highlight opportunities and share recommendations, whether technical, commercial, or environmental. In many cases, these suppliers can call on a wide variety of global industries and disciplines from which to share best practices. By building a strong relationship with our suppliers, we are able to build upon a foundation of experience and rapidly respond to the challenges of our business environment.
We operate globally and have partnerships with suppliers from more than 20 countries across Asia, North America, and Europe. We place high expectations on our supply chain when it comes to operational flexibility and responsiveness, and together we must be prepared to respond quickly to a wide range of unplanned events. This requires working proactively with our supply chain partners to ensure they are able to assess and manage risks.
Our supply chain risk management process consists of a combination of critical and strategic supplier risk assessments, supplier self-assessments, RBA audits, and training and capability-building activities to help our supply chain be both resilient and responsible.
In addition to the aforementioned RBA Code and SAQ compliance, we actively engage our critical and strategic suppliers to drive:
Consideration is also given to other suppliers that we are actively developing or that have key capabilities.
Keeping pace with Moore’s Law means the semiconductor industry is advancing at an impressive rate and placing increasing demands on our products. This means we need to make advances across a number of areas simultaneously, including in material properties, operational capability, manufacturing processes, and capacity management.
These advances and demands are quickly shared with our supply chain, which means we need to continually evaluate our supplier landscape to partner with those suppliers who have demonstrated the right level of business commitment.
We continue to invest in our own ability to meet these increasing challenges, which includes growing our capabilities and resources in our global procurement organization, inclusive of our supplier development teams. These investments are consistent with our commitment to continuous improvement. As part of our supplier selection and recertification process, our supplier development team performed comprehensive audits, evaluating supplier compliance across a multitude of business elements. In 2018, these audit areas included supplier's employee health and safety, quality management system, ISO compliance, and intellectual property management. During these audits, we had a 93% closure rate on corrective actions.
We are committed to working with each of our suppliers in developing the right technology, operational capability, or investment in capacity. In addition, we are also committed to helping them adhere to our corporate responsibility expectations. For our critical and strategic suppliers, we not only communicate our expectations, we also offer free hosted webinars to help them to understand the code requirements and the measurement methods, and to gradually build up their knowledge to enhance their management systems.
Our supply chain organization has continued the proliferation of our supplier scorecard to evaluate each of our critical and strategic suppliers against a wide range of performance and compliance criteria. Elements such as business compliance, cost, quality, and delivery, are tabulated, analyzed and distributed quarterly. Each supplier’s performance is reviewed quarterly between the commodity managers and their key supplier counterparts. In addition to this, semi-annual executive business reviews are held to put action plans together to monitor and address any gaps or key opportunities.
Conflict minerals are those minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or adjoining countries. Profits from the sale of these minerals may directly or indirectly benefit those involved in rebel conflicts and human rights violations. These minerals and the metals created from them - tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold - can make their way into the supply chains of products used around the world, including the semiconductor industry. As a member of the global community, we have a strong commitment to preventing human-rights violations.
Our Conflict Minerals Policy communicates our commitment to responsible sourcing. To enforce this policy, we developed, and have been executing our supply chain Conflict Minerals due diligence process annually since 2014 (ASMI conflict minerals policy).
We joined and participate in the widely-recognized Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI). The RMI brings together the electronics, automotive, and other industries to jointly improve conditions in the extractives industry (www.conflictfreesourcing.org).
Our programs focus on communicating our policy, training and surveying our critical suppliers, and collecting supply chain sourcing information on the sources of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TG) using the industry-standard RMI template, known as the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT). We actively engage with critical suppliers and conduct due diligence based on OECD guidance.
We encourage all of our suppliers to source 3TGs responsibly, and to use certified conflict-free smelters using recognized certification organizations. Our goal is to trace all of our critical and strategic suppliers and ensure they are using only certified conflict-free smelters, and that our sourcing funds do not finance conflict in the covered countries.
After we complete our due diligence survey, we carry out detailed data verification and analysis with identified smelters, from whom our suppliers source. This process establishes traceability to the smelters and confirms that the smelters identified are on the validated conflict-free smelters (CFS) list published by the RMI. This helps us ensure that the products and components we source are DRC mineral conflict-free.
We are committed to the RBA Code of Conduct, including its commitment to conflict-free sourcing, and will continue our active participation and contribution to the RMI and our engagement with other relevant stakeholders. These include the European Parliament and other international NGOs through our engagement with CFSI. Current information on the due diligence process and our policy can be found on our website in the supply chain section under corporate responsibility. In 2021, the European Union will introduce a regulation establishing supply chain due diligence obligations for importers, based in the EU, of tin, tantalum and tungsten, their ores, and gold originating from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.
In 2018, we have completed our search and evaluation of the potential solutions for a supplier portal tool that will tightly integrate all supply chain activities from supplier search, qualification & onboarding, sourcing, procure-to-pay, forecasting, quality, supplier performance as well as communications of supply chain initiatives and business requirements. The supplier portal solution is expected to be implemented in phases from 2019 to 2020.
Going forward, we will continue to invest in human resources and solutions in data analytics to exploit opportunities for improvement in all areas of the supply chain pertaining to compliance, risk management, supply continuity, and performance.