STMicroelectronics reported first quarter net revenues of $3.55 billion, up by 17% from a year earlier, but still offset somewhat by reduced operations at its Shenzhen, China, plant amid Covid-19 shutdowns in the region.
“The revenue performance, driven by strong demand in microcontrollers, was partially offset by temporarily reduced operations at our Shenzhen, China, manufacturing facility due to the pandemic,” said STMicroelectronics CEO Jean-Marc Chery in a statement on Wednesday. The company has more than 5,000 employees in China and more than 18,000 in Asia.
Covid-19 shutdowns in Shanghai, Shenzhen and nearby areas in China are having a broader impact on chipmakers based outside of China. STMicroelectronics is based in Geneva, but Texas Instruments on Tuesday cut its revenue forecast for the second quarter by 10% because of Covid shutdowns in China.
RELATED: TI cuts revenue outlook 10% over Covid shutdowns at China factories
STMicroelectronics said its automotive and discrete semiconductor products brought in $1.25 billion in revenue in the first quarter, up from about $1 billion from a year earlier. Microcontrollers and digital integrated circuits brought in $1.198 billion in revenue up from nearly $900 million a year earlier. Analog, MEMS and sensors brought in $1.08 billion in revenue, which reflected an increase in analog and MEMS but a decrease in imaging sensors over a year ago.
Revenues in the second quarter, closing July 2, is expected to reach $3.75 billion, an improvement of 25% over the first quarter of 2021. The company expects to invest about $3.5 billion in 2022 for capital expenses, including an industrialization line at its new 300 mm wafer fab in Agrate, Italy. Revenues for all of 2022 will be in the range of $14.8 billion to $15.3 billion, or growth of 16% to 20%.
STMicroelectronics noted it has designed a Stellar automotive microcontroller unit into a new zonal architecture for software-defined vehicles and signed a deal for a V2X chipset with Autotalks and helped design in Mobileye EyeQ technology from an unnamed electric vehicle maker for level 4 ADAS. It also noted a sale of its 6-axis sensor embedded with a machine learning core for an advanced auto antitheft system.
Shares were down nearly 1% on Wednesday to $36.43.