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Melexis, Belgium’s largest semiconductor supplier, said on Wednesday that it expected lower margin and sales in the first half of 2025, as inventory corrections by its automotive customers continue into the new year.
Melexis, whose automotive semiconductor business made up 90% of its total sales in 2024, counts Tesla and Chinese carmakers BYD and NIO among its customers.
The company expects its operating margin to reach around 16% in the first half of the year, down from the 26.3% it posted in the same period in 2024.
It sees half year sales of around 400 million euros ($415.4 million), compared with 487.5 million euros last year. Sales in the first quarter should be in a range of 190 million to 200 million euros, it said.
“While customer inventory corrections are continuing in the first half of the year, we are cautiously optimistic that customer demand will start to improve around the summer,” Melexis said in an earnings statement.
Melexis did not provide a detailed guidance for full year sales or earnings, but said the sales were expected to pick up significantly in the second half of 2025.
The company said it expected to spend around 50 million euros in capital expenditures in 2025, down from 60.6 million last year and 94.8 million in 2023.
Michael Roeg, an analyst at Degroof Petercam, said the results and outlook were well below expectations across the board, and added investors would be looking at the management’s confidence regarding the second half improvement during the post-earnings call, scheduled to start at 0930 GMT.
Melexis’ fourth quarter operating margin was 14.0% on sales of 197.4 million euros. Analyst were expecting a 18.6% margin and sales of 205.4 million, a company-compiled poll showed.
($1 = 0.9629 euros)
(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi)
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