Infineon earnings suffer from corona pandemic

This year the semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies Austria AG is celebrating its 50th anniversary under the leadership of CEO Sabine Herlitschka. During the festivities alone, Corona threw the bill for the technology company, which is a subsidiary of the German stock exchange group Infineon Technologies – it was (probably) postponed to 2021. And the results for the 2019/20 financial year also suffered.

At 3.1 billion euros, sales remained roughly at the previous year’s level. However, earnings before taxes collapsed by around a third, specifically 36 percent, to 196 million euros. The main reason for this is the reduced capacity utilization in production – namely “unused capacities”, as Infineon Technologies Austria AG CFO Oliver Heinrich says. From May to the end of July around 1,500 members of the workforce were on short-time work.

According to Thomas Reisinger, Chief Operations Officer, there was “underutilization”, especially in the summer – the automotive sector suffered sharp declines. The utilization is now back at 90 to 95 percent, as Reisinger explains. By the end of the year, “almost 100 percent” will have been achieved, according to his prognosis.