July 15 (Bloomberg) -- ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest maker of semiconductor equipment, said revenue this quarter will increase as its customers resume investments in machines that allow them to make smaller chips.

Sales will rise to about 450 million euros ($630 million), from 277 million euros in the second quarter, Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML said today. The second-quarter net loss was 104 million euros, compared with a profit of 192 million euros a year earlier and the 109.6 million-euro average loss estimate of 13 analysts’ predictions compiled by Bloomberg.

ASML, posting its third consecutive quarterly loss, said chipmakers are returning to “a more typical rate of technology transition investments.” Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, yesterday forecast sales that topped analysts’ estimates as personal computer makers boost orders for chips in anticipation of increased demand in the second half.

“They’re going from an extremely low level to a more normal low level,” said Eric de Graaf, an analyst at Petercam in Amsterdam, who advises selling ASML. “They’re not guiding for a clear recovery. It would be a little too early for that.”

ASML rose 75 cents, or 4.7 percent, to 16.53 euros in Amsterdam, the biggest increase in three months. Before today, ASML had gained 24 percent this year, compared with a 2.4 percent gain in Amsterdam’s benchmark AEX Index.

Customers Return

The company anticipates minimum quarterly sales of 400 million euros to 500 million euros on average in the next quarters, it said. It will post “a slight loss” in the third quarter, Chief Financial Officer Peter Wennink said in a video interview posted on the company’s Web site.

“Customers are coming back for leading-edge technology. They need that to drive their cost down,” Wennink said in the video interview. “It doesn’t mean that we’re seeing a full- swing recovery.”

Intel said yesterday that sales will be about $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion this quarter, compared with an average analyst estimate of $7.86 billion. Tokyo Electron Ltd., Asia’s largest maker of semiconductor equipment, said on July 9 that orders for its chip gear more than doubled to 48 billion yen ($510 million) in the April-June period from the previous quarter, as semiconductor makers invested in gear that makes smaller chips.

Global semiconductor-equipment sales will probably reach $16.6 billion this year, a 46 percent drop from last year, researcher Gartner Inc. said on June 15. At the time, the Stamford, Connecticut-based researcher said equipment spending will rise 29 percent to $21.4 billion next year.

Orders Slide

ASML, led by Chief Executive Officer Eric Meurice, received bookings for 15 machines in the second quarter, down from 33 machines a year earlier. The average selling price for ordered machines rose to 26.3 million euros from 19.2 million euros a year earlier.

The gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after subtracting manufacturing costs, dropped to 12.5 percent in the second quarter from 40 percent a year earlier and will be about 30 percent this quarter.

ASML is the world’s largest maker of machines to project lines on the silicon slices from which chips are made. Its main rivals are Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc., both from Japan. Applied Materials Inc., based in Santa Clara, California, is the world’s largest maker of semiconductor equipment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marcel van de Hoef in Amsterdam at mvandehoef@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 15, 2009 11:57 EDT