Even though demand for semiconductors has peaked in some areas, Infineon’s business is going so well that the group is again raising its forecast for the current year. The order backlog keeps climbing to new record highs.
Business at the semiconductor group Infineon is booming. For the third time in a row, the group has increased its forecast for the current financial year. Both the turnover and the margin should be a bit better than originally planned. In the past third quarter things had gone up steeply. Overall, CEO Jochen Hanebeck also sees risks, but the central growth drivers are intact.
Specifically, Infineon increased its sales in the third quarter from April to June compared to the same period last year by 33 percent to 3.6 billion euros. Profit after tax more than doubled to 517 million euros.
Those are the new goals
The new sales target for the current financial year is now around EUR 14 billion, which is half a billion more than before. Around 140 million of that goes to the account of the stronger dollar. The target margin for the segment result increased by one point to 23 percent.
“In a difficult general weather situation, Infineon is still on the right track thanks to its differentiated portfolio,” said Hanebeck. He also sees risks for the economy – such as rising energy costs, raw material prices and interest rates – but in principle the demand for semiconductors is still high. This is also due to drivers such as the trend towards electric and increasingly autonomous cars, the strengthening of renewable energies and digitization with the expansion of data centers.
Order backlog at all-time high
Meanwhile, the order backlog keeps climbing to new heights. In the meantime, it has reached an all-time high of 42 billion euros – that is 5 billion more than after the second quarter and three times the targeted annual turnover. Although Hanebeck emphasized that Infineon treats this value very skeptically – in view of the lack of chips, many companies ordered much more than they actually need and by no means all orders are confirmed – but the number shows how great the demand for the products is at the moment.
However, there are already signs of a downward trend. Demand is falling in individual consumer-related areas, said Hanebeck. Overall, the imbalance between supply and demand is decreasing. “It seems we are nearing the end of a long upswing,” he said. The Infineon boss did not comment on the expectations for the coming financial year. That’s only due in November.
