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Electronics news digest

13 September 2017 News

Overseas

Business

• ON Semiconductor announced financial results for the second quarter of 2017. Total revenue was $1,34 billion, up approximately 52% compared to the same quarter last year, but was down approximately 7% compared to the first quarter of 2017. Based on product booking trends, backlog levels and estimated turns levels, the company anticipates that total revenue in the third quarter of 2017 will be approximately $1,34 to $1,39 billion.

• Revenue for NXP Semiconductors’ second quarter was $2,20 billion, a decline of 7% year on year, and flat versus the prior quarter. Within its automotive group, revenue was a record $938 million, up 9% year on year due to strong demand across the product portfolio. The company stated it is enjoying traction with the combination of its automotive microcontroller and advanced analog products, as automotive OEMs increasingly realise the benefit of designing-in its complete system solutions.

• In the third quarter of Infineon Technologies’ 2017 fiscal year, revenue grew by 4% from 1,77 billion Euros to 1,83 billion Euros quarter-on-quarter. The industrial power control, power management and multimarket, and chip card and security segments all contributed to revenue growth, whereas revenue reported by the automotive segment was slightly down. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) of 0,22 Euros was up compared to both the previous quarter’s 0,18 Euros and the 0,16 Euros year-on-year.

• Microchip Technology enjoyed record sales of $972,1 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2017, up 7,7% sequentially and up 21,6% from the year-ago quarter. Net income was also a record at $170,6 million, or $0,70 per diluted share. CEO Steve Sanghi stated: “We are continuing to add capacity in our internal fabs, assembly and test plants, foundries and subcontractors. Our lead times are still long, but with the increased output from our recent efforts, we believe we have managed to stabilise lead times to create a soft landing without triggering over-ordering in our customer base.”

• Samsung Electronics’ revenue for the second quarter was R720,2 billion, an increase of R118,8 billion year on year, while operating profit for the quarter was a record R166,1 billion, an increase of R69,9 billion year on year. The components businesses drove significant earnings growth, both year on year and quarter on quarter, thanks primarily to strong memory demand for high-density DRAMs and SSDs for servers. Although the company was hit by the sentencing of heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for corruption, it is not expected to immediately impact the South Korean giant’s electronics business.

• Qorvo announced fiscal 2018 first quarter revenue of $640,8 million and diluted loss per share of $0,24. Comparatively, revenue in the same quarter last year was $697,6 million, while diluted loss per share was $0,04.

• Revenue for Sierra Wireless’ second quarter of 2017 was $173,5 million, an increase of 11,1% compared to $156,2 million in the second quarter of 2016. Revenue from OEM Solutions was $144,5 million, up 9,0% compared to the second quarter of 2016; revenue from enterprise solutions was $21,7 million, up 30,7%; and revenue from cloud and connectivity services was $7,3 million, up 4,3%.

Industry

• The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $97,9 billion during the second

quarter of 2017, an increase of 5,8% over the previous quarter and 23,7% more than the second quarter of 2016. Cumulatively, year-to-date sales during the first half of 2017 were 20,8% higher than they were at the same point in 2016. For the month of June, regional sales increased compared to June 2016 in the Americas (33,4%), China (25,5%), Asia Pacific/All Other (19,5%), Europe (18,3%) and Japan (18,0%).

• IC Insights has revised its outlook for the IC industry upwards, and now expects the market to increase 16% in 2017 due to exceptional growth in the DRAM and NAND Flash memory markets. The DRAM market is now forecast to grow 55% and the NAND Flash market is now expected to rise 35% this year – in both cases, almost entirely due to fast-rising prices rather than unit growth. Excluding these two markets, the overall IC market growth is forecast to show just 6% year-over-year growth. The expected 16% increase would be the first double-digit gain for the IC market since it expanded by 33% in 2010 – the recession recovery year – and the fifth double-digit increase since 2000.

• US president Donald Trump has set in motion a process led by the United States Trade Representative to investigate China’s unfair trade practices. In a memorandum, he emphasised that “the United States is a world leader in research-and-development-intensive, high-technology goods,” and that “violations of intellectual property rights and other unfair technology transfers potentially threaten United States firms by undermining their ability to compete fairly in the global market.”





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