ESPOO, FINLAND – Aspocomp reported net sales of €6.5 million ($7 million) for the third quarter, down 21% from 2023's third quarter.

The company said the drop in sales came primarily from a sluggish demand in the semiconductor industry segment in the first half of the year, plus extended production lead times.

For the first nine months of the year, sales totaled €19.7 million ($21.3 million), a year-on-year decrease of 26%.

"In the third quarter of 2024, net sales decreased by 21% year-on-year and amounted to €6.4 million," said CEO Manu Skyttä. "The positive development in demand that started at the end of the second quarter continued and order intake grew strongly during the quarter, especially in the semiconductor industry segment. However, this was not yet reflected in net sales, because the customer segment’s demand was sluggish in the first half of the year. The recruitments that began in the summer have progressed as planned, which enables full utilization of the capacity. However, the training and orientation of the new personnel are still in progress, so production throughput will be slower as the demand has grown more strongly than expected. This also had a significant impact on the low net sales."