ASML is planning a “new” reuse and repair center in Bejing, China, according to the company’s most recent annual report.
In a segment discussing the chip manufacturing equipment maker’s approach to the circular economy, the company said it had a “dedicated reuse and repair organization” and was planning to “open a new” center in Beijing in 2025, “marking another important step-up in reuse manufacturing.”
However, despite the report describing the center as new, the South China Morning Post reported that a representative for ASML told the outlet that the Beijing repair center is “an upgrade to our existing repair center in China. It is not an addition, it replaces the older repair center.”
In addition to mainland China, ASML also has repair centers in South Korea and Taiwan in Asia; Wilton, Connecticut, San Diego, California, and Vancouver, Washington State, in the US; and Veldhoven in the Netherlands.
ASML is the sole global supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines that are needed to make the most advanced 3nm and 5nm chips. Based in the Eindhoven suburb of Veldhoven, the company has been at the center of the US government’s ongoing trade war with China, with the Dutch government increasingly succumbing to pressure from the Biden administration to block exports of ASML products to China.
The company has previously been banned from selling its most advanced equipment to China, and then in January 2024, had an export license revoked to stop the shipment of two older lithography machines to Chinese customers.
The US government claims this is to stop China from developing advanced AI systems and to prevent it from having access to technology that could be used for military modernization and human rights abuses however, former ASML CEO Peter Wennink argued in 2024 that the export restrictions are largely ideologically driven rather than based on facts.
ASML had been operating in China for 30 years and Chinese companies bought 36 percent of ASML's lithography systems sold in 2024, generating around $10.9bn in revenue for the company in FY24.
In its annual report, ASML said it aims to have “zero waste from our operations to landfill and incineration by 2030,” adding that it contributes to the circular economy by “maintaining, repairing, upgrading, refurbishing, remanufacturing, repurposing and/or recycling our systems, parts, packaging, assets and non-product related goods.”
In January 2025, the company reported that it had sold 38 refurbished systems in 2024, a ten-unit increase on 2023, and to date, has refurbished and resold over 500 lithography systems.
According to the annual report, 95 percent of systems sold by ASML in the past 30 years are still active in the field.
