ASML Holding NV forecast fourth-quarter sales higher expectations, as the semiconductor equipment maker won orders for 23 more of its newest lithography machines.

The company, which has a monopoly on extreme ultraviolet-lithography equipment, predicts sales of 3.9 billion euros ($4.3 billion) for the fourth quarter, compared with an average estimate of 3.87 billion euros.

ASML, an important supplier to chip makers including Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, forecasts a gross margin of about 48% to 49% in the fourth quarter of the year.

The 23 EUV orders in the third quarter contributed to the highest-ever value of bookings in one quarter, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink.

"For the remainder of the year, we expect Logic to continue to be strong, driven by the leading-edge nodes supporting end-market technology and applications such as 5G and artificial intelligence. The timing of Memory recovery remains uncertain.

"We continue to make solid progress in EUV. Customers have introduced their first EUV manufactured devices and we have seen EUV mentioned in product announcements. In the third quarter, we shipped seven EUV systems, three of which were NXE:3400C, our higher productivity model. We received 23 EUV orders in the third quarter which contributes to our highest ever value of bookings in one quarter. This strong order flow confirms the adoption of EUV in high volume manufacturing for Logic and Memory.

"Our overall view for 2019 is essentially unchanged as we continue to see 2019 as a growth year," Peter Wennink added..

Third-quarter sales came in at 2.99 billion euros. In the quarter, ASML shipped seven EUV systems, three of which were NXE:3400C, the higher productivity model.