Atlas Copco orders surge on strong semiconductor demand (updated)
UPDATE 2-Atlas Copco orders surge on strong semiconductor demand Adds share move in lede, detail on order intake in paragraph 2, company and CEO comments in 3 and 7, background in 5
By Jagoda Darlak
July 16 (Reuters) - Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco ATCOa.ST on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings and orders above expectations, helped by strong semiconductor demand, sending its shares up 6%.
Quarterly order intake jumped 27% to 50.95 billion Swedish crowns, well ahead of analysts' expectations of 44.67 billion crowns. On an organic basis, orders increased by 26%.
The company, which makes a wide range of industrial products from air treatment systems to construction equipment and power tools, said overall demand for its products and services improved notably in the quarter, with higher order volumes driven primarily by demand from the semiconductor industry.
Operating earnings before items affecting comparability rose to 9.46 billion Swedish crowns ($984.19 million) in the second quarter on a 9% increase in revenue, compared with analysts' average forecast of 9.25 billion crowns, data compiled by LSEG showed.
Atlas Copco's vacuum business delivers assembly components for major semiconductor equipment makers like ASML ASML.AS.
The company said customer activity would remain at the current level in the near term.
"We delivered double-digit order growth in all business areas and saw high activity level among almost all of our customer segments," CEO Vagner Rego said in a statement.
Shares in the company were up around 6% at 0926 GMT, having traded down about 3% before the earnings report was published.
(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak; editing by Bartosz Dabrowski and Matt Scuffham)
((Jagoda.Darlak@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 40;))