Thursday, February 25, 2021
Well positioned in a chip crisis
Infineon sees itself ahead of the competition
The semiconductor company Infineon has high hopes for its new plant. In view of the early decision, one now has an advantage over the competition in the chip crisis.
The Munich semiconductor manufacturer Infineon wants to meet the increasing demand in the automotive industry for chips with the help of its new plant in Austria. In the future, the factory in Villach could produce enough semiconductors for the drives of 25 million electric cars a year, said Infineon boss Reinhard Ploss at the annual general meeting. He was confident that the Dax group would succeed in serving the growing needs of customers in the long term. As a competitor, Infineon began to expand capacities earlier and therefore has a head start.
Production in the plant should start in early autumn, three months earlier than originally planned. In the future, Infineon will have two large plants in Villach and Dresden that produce on the large 300-millimeter panes, said Ploss. The shortage of semiconductors is currently troubling the automotive industry worldwide. Manufacturers such as Volkswagen or Ford had to register short-time working. A spokesman for the US automaker announced that Ford will expand its short-time work in several European plants. For example, three more short-time working days have been introduced in Cologne in March. Experts do not expect the shortage of chips to end quickly.
While Infineon produces its own power semiconductors and logic chips, the company is dependent on suppliers such as the Taiwanese TSMC for microcontrollers. At the height of the first corona wave in March, many car manufacturers had cut their orders. At the same time, however, the demand for WLAN connections, game consoles, contactless payment and exercise bikes soared, and the manufacturers of entertainment electronics ordered significantly more chips. The situation with contract manufacturers is currently very tense, said Infineon sales director Helmut Gassel. He hopes the situation will ease in the second half of the year.
At the same time, Infineon expanded its Executive Board to five members. Constanze Hufenbecher is supposed to drive the digital transformation. Infineon took over US rival Cypress Semiconductors for nine billion euros last year. Cypress manufactures chips for self-driving cars, among other things. Hufenbecher had already worked for Infineon from 2004 to 2009 and was most recently CFO at Lufthansa Technik. The contract of CFO Sven Schneider is also to be extended by five years.
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