Geneva-based STMicroelectronics said Thursday that revenues increased in the third quarter on bigger demand for auto products, following a recent trend among other semi makers.
The revenue improvement was “due to significantly better than expected market conditions throughout the quarter,” said CEO Jean-Marc Chery in a statement.
The company reported revenues of $2.67 billion for the quarter, up nearly 28% over the previous quarter and 4.4% over third quarter 2019. Net income improved over the second quarter as well to $242 million, but was down nearly 20% compared to a year earlier.
Texas Instruments and Xilinx earlier this week also said demand increased for auto products in the third quarter. STMicroelectronics also saw an improvement in personal electronics and microcontrollers.
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Third quarter auto and discrete semiconductor results were up 17% over the second quarter, but still down nearly 5% compared to a year earlier. Operating profit in the group was down 36%. As with TI, the auto improvement at Xilinx came after a big decline in the second quarter when many car plants shut down due to COVID-19 then reopened in the May and June.
ST also said revenue climbed in microcontrollers and RF communications by 11% quarter-to-quarter and 18% year over year, with operating profit up by 32%. Revenues were also up for MEMS and analog but down in imaging.
The company expects even greater revenue growth in the fourth quarter of about 12% amid all products except the RF communications area. For all of 2020, revenues are expected to reach nearly $10 billion, an improvement of 4.3% year-over-year.
In 2019, ST was the eighth largest semiconductor maker in the world by revenues, ranked just behind Texas Instruments and just ahead of Nvidia. It is the largest in Europe, with about 46,000 employees.