News

28 April 2010

 

Veeco’s LED & Solar orders up seven-fold year-on-year as backlog reaches $0.5bn

For first-quarter 2010, epitaxial deposition, process, and metrology equipment maker Veeco Instruments Inc of Plainview NY, USA has reported record revenue of $163m, up 12% on $146m last quarter and 160% on $62.8m a year ago.

Of this, LED & Solar revenues were a record $111.5m (76% of total revenue). This is up 14% on last quarter’s $98m and more than five times the $22.2m a year ago. Meanwhile, Data Storage process equipment revenue was $23.2m, up on last quarter’s $21m and $16.9m a year ago. Metrology revenue was $28.4m, up on last quarter’s $27.2m and $23.7m a year ago.

Earnings before interest, income taxes and amortization (EBITA) for LED & Solar was $29.8m, up from $27m last quarter and a loss of $3.7m a year ago. Overall EBITA was a record $32.8m (20% of sales), up from $25.1m last quarter and a loss of $9.7m a year ago.

During the quarter, Veeco generated $42m in cash from operations, boosting the cash balance further, from $148.6m to $194m.

“We are executing well, with revenues and profitability increasing sequentially in all three Veeco businesses,” notes CEO John R. Peeler.

Orders were a record $268m (up 2% on $262.2m last quarter and more than five times $53m a year ago). This included a record $211.7m for LED & Solar (79% of total bookings). Driven by accelerating orders for TurboDisc MOCVD systems, this is up 20% on last quarter’s $177m and more than seven times $28.5m a year ago. “We continued to see strong MOCVD demand as an expanding LED customer list ramps production for laptop and TV backlighting, as well as for general illumination,” says Peeler. Data Storage and Metrology orders were $26m and $30m respectively, each much better than a year ago but down sequentially. During the quarter, total order backlog rose from $402m to a new record of $502m.

“We continue to see strong momentum in our LED business,” Peeler comments. “Our TurboDisc K465i MOCVD system [launched in January] has hit the market at the right time, offering high productivity and best-in-class yields. As a result, Veeco has been gaining share and winning business at many of the world's top LED manufacturers,” he adds.

“To date, second quarter business patterns remain extremely strong, with multi-tool system orders being quoted at a large number of customers... Several key Asian customers [including LED makers Sanan Optoelectronics of China, Genesis Photonics of Taiwan and Seoul Optodevice of Korea] have already booked sizeable orders in April,” Peeler says.

“We continue to increase our MOCVD manufacturing capacity, with a goal to ship more than 75 systems this quarter,” notes Peeler. “We are currently planning to further build capacity to ship more than 100 and 120 systems in the third and fourth quarters, respectively... Our highest priority is to satisfy our customers with on-time deliveries and world-class customer support of their manufacturing ramps,” he adds.

For second-quarter 2010, Veeco expects revenue to rise 35–47% to $220–240m.

See related items:

Veeco’s MOCVD revenue more than doubles sequentially

LED backlighting drives Veeco’s return to profit

Veeco orders double on booming MOCVD system demand

Veeco’s revenues fall 43% after pause in bookings

Despite record MBE orders for solar, Veeco expects 36-46% sales dip in Q1

See: Veeco Company Profile

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