LONDON — European chipmaker STMicroelectronics is on track to grow sales by 18 percent in 2017 after delivering third quarter results that included strong sales growth across all categories.
“All product groups recorded double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, driven by strong demand across all geographies in our focus application areas of Internet of Things, smartphones, industrial and smart driving,” said Carlo Bozotti, ST’s president and CEO.
ST (Geneva) posted sales of around $2.14 billion, up an impressive 18.9 percent year-over-year and 11.1 percent sequentially. Third quarter gross profit was $845 million and gross margin was 39.5 percent.
Carlo Bozotti
The company’s imaging business, which includes the time-of-flight sensor long rumored to be in the latest generation of Apple iPhones, did particularly well. Sales in this division registered a triple-digit sequential revenue growth, more than doubling in the last three months. The company said this growth was down to “an initial ramp in wireless applications for ST’s new product program,” which includes the time-of-flight sensor. Sales of these products, reported under “others," increased from $74 million in second quarter to $158 million in the third quarter.
Of the other product groups, the Analog and MEMS division did best, growing revenues 24.8 percent year-over-year due to a sharp recovery in analog products and strong growth in MEMS. Net revenue for these products was $502 million in the third quarter.
Microcontrollers and Digital ICs’ revenue increased 19.4 percent to $701 million based on strong growth for general purpose microcontrollers; operating income in this division had a very sharp sequential improvement of $54 million, resulting in an increase in its operating margin from 11.6 percent in the second quarter to 17.9 percent last quarter.
Automotive and Discrete products’ net revenue grew 10 percent compared to the third quarter of 2016 to reach $775 million.
— Sally Ward-Foxton is a European correspondent for EE Times.