Amid the weak economy, the Austrian subsidiary of German semiconductor company Infineon has significantly increased its profit in the 2022/23 financial year (from the end of September). “Digitalization and decarbonization drive growth – that is also what characterizes us very strongly,” said Sabine Herlitschka, boss of Infineon Austria, in Vienna on Tuesday. Profit before tax increased by 26 percent to 835 million euros, turnover by seven percent to 5.6 billion euros.
The group produced 9.2 billion chips in the reporting period, compared to around nine billion the year before. The company is benefiting from the digital transformation and, in light of the climate crisis, from the general efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions. With intelligent technologies you can “contribute to greater sustainability” and with intelligence “you can replace many natural resources and thus grow profitably,” says Herlitschka. According to the information, the turnover of the entire group increased by about 15 percent to 16 billion euros in the past financial year. Meanwhile, the semiconductor market has fallen by 13 percent and “our reference market with the products with which we are successful has decreased by one percent,” reports the CEO of Infineon Technologies.
“Structural growth engines”
“We mainly focus on structural growth engines,” explains the Austrian boss, referring to “energy, sustainable energy – especially in the power electronics sector –, clean and safe mobility and everything related to the connected world.” The past two quarters have been “very challenging.” “The industry is in a recession in Austria,” the manager said. Infineon, for example, is seeing a “flattening of demand” in the consumer and Internet of Things (IoT) sectors. According to the information, things are going well when it comes to semiconductors and chips for “energy efficiency, energy applications, sustainable mobility and security in the digital world”.
All existing data centers are particularly large energy guzzlers. “They are responsible for around 2 percent of global energy consumption – this will rise to 7 percent by 2030,” the company boss explains. Infineon is represented in approximately 50 percent of data centers worldwide with “energy-saving chips” “and our figures look accordingly,” said Herlitschka, pleased with the course of the past financial year.
“Efficient power semiconductors are the key to decarbonization, i.e. CO2 reduction,” emphasizes Thomas Reisinger, Operations Director at Infineon Austria. “We have been a center of excellence in power semiconductors in Austria for more than 25 years.”
Significantly more invested
Total investments (excluding financial assets) increased by 10 percent to 628 million euros in the past financial year, and expenditure on research and development (R&D) increased by 15 percent to 672 million euros or 12 percent of turnover, after a turnover share of 11 per cent. percent in the previous year. According to previous CFO Oliver Heinrich, the money flowed “mainly into the expansion in Villach and into the capabilities for new semiconductor materials”.
The workforce grew by 8 percent (425 people) to 5,886 employees. The academic quota is 58 percent. The company is tackling the shortage of skilled workers with measures such as the apprenticeship campus, which shows “how exciting apprenticeships can be”, as well as intensive cooperation with higher technical colleges (HTL) in Austria. In the past two years, Infineon has hired more than 1,000 new employees and currently has approximately 160 vacancies. That is “not a particularly high value,” says Herlitschka.
However, the slowdown in the economy has not left Infineon completely unscathed. “On the whole, we must of course be cautious with investments, we will look carefully, we will also face a weak market situation in the first half of the year,” admits the new CFO of Infineon Austria, Jörg Eisenschmied. , which will take effect on November 1, 2023, has taken over from Oliver Heinrich. When it comes to personnel, according to Austrian boss Herlitschka, it is now important to ensure that the approximately 1,000 new colleagues are well established. “At the same time, we are now much more careful: we do not dismiss anyone, but based on the market situation we look at where replacement is really needed.”
In total, Infineon has approximately 60,000 employees at 69 research and development locations and 17 production locations worldwide. According to Herlitschka, 50 percent of global economic production is directly or indirectly dependent on microelectronics, that is, semiconductors or chips.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
