The Vacuum Technique business accounts for nearly a quarter of Atlas Copco's order intake and roughly half of the unit's exposure is to the semiconductor industry.

The Swedish company has been vulnerable to a wave of negative news coming out of the semiconductor sector, where capital spending has been cut on the back of over-capacity, falling chip prices and weaker smartphone demand.

Order intake at the vacuum unit fell less than expected, helping quarterly group orders to reach 23.7 billion Swedish crowns (1.99 billion pounds), up 1 pct year-on-year on an organic basis and above the 23.0 crowns billion seen by analysts.

Operating earnings at the maker of compressors, vacuum pumps and industrial tools, rose to 5.66 billion Swedish crowns from 4.86 billion a year earlier, beating a mean forecast of 5.22 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Atlas Copco shares were up 5.7 percent at 1121 GMT following the earnings report.

The company forecast customer demand to be somewhat lower in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard)