Dutch tech company ASML posts record profits

It said its net profit came in at 1.02 billion euros ($1.34 billion) after a net loss of 151 million euros in 2009, with sales nearly tripling to 4.51 billion euros.

"Sales, profits and orders all hit record levels" in 2010, ASML executive director Eric Meurice said in a statement.

For the three months to December, the company also put in a record performance, with a net profit of 407 million euros more than eight times the year-earlier level as sales rose more than three times to 1.52 billion euros.

Fourth quarter new orders came to 117 worth 2.31 billion euros, up from 60 orders in the three months to September.

At end-2010, the order book was worth 3.86 billion euros, it said.

Meurice said sales this year could come in at more than 5.0 billion euros.

The company has about 7,100 employees in 16 countries. It claims to be the world's leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing machines for the production of integrated circuits or chips.

(c) 2011 AFP