Infineon Technologies CEO Jochen Hanebeck has said the company was seeing “very strong momentum” in China’s automotive industry and expected Europe’s electric-vehicle market to recover next year.
According to Bloomberg, the world’s biggest automotive chip producer projected revenue in the current quarter would rise to about EUR3.8bn (US$4.1bn) from EUR3.6bn last quarter, reversing two consecutive periods of declining sales and signaling that a slump in demand from EV makers was ending.
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“In China, we have very strong momentum now. In contrast, Europe and US are weak,” Hanebeck reportedly said on a call about the market for automotive chips, which make up more than half of Infineon’s revenue. “But in the EU, we believe that the market will pick up from 2025 onwards.”
Bloomberg noted China dominated global electric vehicle production, so the Asian market was critical for a turnaround in Infineon’s fortunes. The company and some of its peers had already predicted that a recovery in chip demand was near.
Nonetheless, recovery has proven slower than Infineon had previously indicated, Bloomberg noted. Revenue would be EUR15.1bn for the fiscal year which ends in September, plus or minus EUR400m, the German chipmaker said in a statement on Tuesday. That was the second time it had cut its 2024 projections, Bloomberg added, and the forecast fell below analysts’ estimate of EUR15.7bn.
Overall segment result margin was expected to be in the high teens percentage range in the third fiscal quarter, according to Infineon which Bloomberg said compared to analysts’ estimates of 20.9%.
