BERLIN (Reuters) -German chip manufacturer Infineon on Tuesday trimmed its full-year revenue guidance and forecast second-quarter revenue below market expectations after industry-wide weak demand dented its first-quarter revenue.
The company now expects full-year revenue of 16 billion euros ($17.20 billion), plus or minus 500 million euros, versus its previous expectation of 17 billion euros, plus or minus the same amount, citing changes to its assumed exchange rate.
“About half of the decline of the forecast revenue relates to the adjustment of the assumed exchange rate to $1.10,” said the company. It had previously assumed a rate of $1.05.
It said it now expected an adjusted margin for the year in the low to mid-twenties percentage range, versus prior guidance for around 24%.
Infineon shares in Lang & Schwarz premarket trade were down around 5% following the results.
The semiconductor industry has come under pressure as global economic woes dent demand for chips used in everything from tablets to cellphones and cars.
The company’s forecast for second-quarter revenue of 3.6 billion euros fell below company-provided estimates of 4.02 billion euros, and were in line with updated guidance from peers STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments last month that fanned concerns that the automotive chip industry may be facing a downturn.
Revenue in Infineon’s automotive segment was down in the fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 31, but the company stuck to its full-year forecast despite a slowdown in demand from the electric vehicle sector outside China.
Its first-quarter revenue was down 11% versus the previous quarter to 3.7 billion euros, below the 3.84 billion seen in a company-provided survey of analysts.
“In consumer, communication, computing and IoT applications, we are not anticipating a noticeable recovery in demand until the second half of the calendar year,” CEO Jochen Hanebeck said.
($1 = 0.9305 euros)
(Reporting by Hakan Ersan and Miranda Murray, Editing by Rachel More)
