PREVIEW-ASML investors hope for sustainable order recovery

* Q2 results due Wednesday, July 15, at 0500 GMT

* Net loss seen at 109 million euros

* New bookings seen at 17 units vs 8 in Q1 and 33 in Q2 2008

By Harro ten Wolde

AMSTERDAM, July 13 (Reuters) - ASML (ASML.AS) (ASML.O) is set to report a rebound in orders this week when the focus will be on whether the loss-making Dutch chip equipment maker thinks the second quarter was a harbinger of better times.

"The main question for the second half is whether the chip industry recovery in the second quarter was just a replenishment of inventories or reflecting the start of a structural improvement in overall demand," SNS Securities analyst Victor Bareno said.

ASML, the world's largest maker of semiconductor lithography machines, which map out electronic circuits on silicon wafers, is expected to report second-quarter orders of 17 systems, valued at 365 million euros ($511 million). [ID:nLA530578]

Orders from clients such as Intel Corp (INTC.O), the world's largest chip maker, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW), the world's largest contract chip maker, were expected to rise on the back of improving sentiment in the sector.

In April, ASML signalled a pick-up in the technology sector and guided for quarterly sales of 400-500 million euros in the second half of this year. [ID:nL0433704]

Philip Scholte at SNS Securities said he did not expect expansion of investments in cheaper machines that can produce large amounts of chips any time soon.

ASML has cornered the market for the most advanced, so-called immersion machines that allow manufacturers to produce chips with ever-finer structures.

That market came to an almost complete stand-still in the previous two quarters as customers postponed orders, costing around 30 million euros apiece, due to the recession.

Orders dropped to 8 systems at the end of the first quarter down from 13 in the fourth quarter and 26 in the first quarter of 2008.

ASML has always argued that memory chip manufacturers in particular must follow rivals in making ever smaller chips because this means more chips fit on a single wafer, making them cheaper to produce -- an advantage no firm could afford to miss out on.

"They can wait and see for a while, but ... they need to come back," ASML finance director Peter Wennink said in April.

For the longer term ASML is betting on extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography systems, which transfer patterns onto silicon wafers by projecting EUV light through a vacuum-contained lens, costing about 55-65 million euros each. (Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7149 euro)