ST cuts full-year forecast, Seraphim dismantles MCU team

1.ST net profit fell more than 60%, looking ahead to the fourth quarter revenue continued to decline

STMicroelectronics announced the third quarter of 2024 financial results, revenue of 3.25 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 26.6%; gross margin of 37.8%, a year-on-year decrease of 9.8 percentage points; net profit of 353 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 67.8%. mcu business revenue of 829 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 43.4%.

ST President and CEO Jean-Marc Chery said third-quarter revenue was in line with median expectations, with higher revenue from personal electronics, a smaller decline in industrial and lower revenue in automotive compared to expectations. Net revenues for the first nine months were down 23.5% year-on-year, with declines in all reportable business segments, particularly the MCU business.

ST looks for full-year 2024 revenues of approximately $13.27 billion, down 23.2% year-over-year and at the lower edge of last quarter's expected range. And it expects revenue declines from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 to be much higher than normal seasonal fluctuations.

2. Si Ruipu MCU team overall adjustment, or due to excessive involution

According to FastTech citing relevant reports, domestic analog IC listed company Si Rui Pu (3PEAK) recently dissolved its MCU team. About 80 employees are expected to be affected, some of whom had been members of the MCU R&D team in China that Texas Instruments laid off in 2022.

The report said that the entire MCU department was restructured, including DE, AE, PM, and related positions, of which most of the DE were internally transferred, according to the direction to the signal chain, PMS and other product lines, AE, PM other positions mostly flowed out.

Some MCU industry sources believe that Si Ruipu dissolved MCU team, may be mainly because the MCU market is overly involution, can not see the hope of profitability. It is understood that Si Ruipu invested 200 million yuan in 2021 to enter the MCU field, hoping to integrate high-performance analog mixed-signal technology, the development of MCU beyond similar products at home and abroad, however, almost did not achieve any revenue.

3. Renesas revenue decreased by 1 percent year-on-year to 345 billion yen

Renesas announced its Q3 2024 financial results, with revenue down 9.7% year-on-year to 345 billion yen; gross margin of 55.9%, down 2.1 percentage points year-on-year; and net income of 86 billion yen, down -20.6% year-on-year.

Renesas quarterly automotive business revenue of 185.5 billion yen, up +10.3%; industrial / infrastructure / IoT business revenue of 158.2 billion yen, down 24.3%.

Renesas outlook for fourth-quarter revenue of 278.5 billion yen, up or down 7.5 billion yen, contracted to lower than 23.1%, up or down 2.1 percentage points; outlook for the full year revenue of 1.33 trillion yen, up or down 7.5 billion yen, will be lower than the previous year 9.2%, up or down 0.5 percentage points.

4.UMC third quarter revenue rose 6% year-on-year, wafer shipments rose

According to IT House News, wafer foundry UMC announced its Q3 2024 operating report, realizing NT$60.49 billion in consolidated revenue, up 6.5% sequentially and 6.0% year-on-year. Gross margin was 33.8% and net income attributable to parent company was NT$14.47 billion.

UMC's Q3 wafer shipments rose 7.8% YoY, wafer fabrication capacity utilization reached 71%, 22/28nm contributed 35% of overall revenue, and special process contributed 53.1% of overall revenue.

UMC Co-General Manager Wang Shi said that the demand from various end markets has gradually stabilized, and the inventory level has shown a clear downward trend. The expansion of UMC's new plant in Singapore will be completed soon, and the cooperation with Intel is proceeding according to plan.

5. Huirong revenue and profit year-on-year surge, the fourth quarter is expected to fall

Wisers announced its third-quarter results, with revenue up 23% year-on-year to $212 million; gross margin of 46.7%, up 4.3 percentage points year-on-year; and operating profit of $20.84 million, up 63.3% year-on-year.

Wisers' Q3 SSD controller sales were flat sequentially and up 20% to 25% year-over-year; eMMC+UFS controller sales were up 0% to % sequentially and up 40% to 45% year-over-year; and SSD solution sales were up 5% to 10% sequentially and up 5% to 10% year-over-year.

Huirong outlook for the fourth quarter revenue of $191 to $202 million, down 10% to 5% sequentially, down 6% to 0% year-on-year, expected gross margin of 46.3% to 47.4%.

6. Canalys: Global smartphone shipments up 5% year-over-year in Q3

According to TechCrunch Daily, Canalys reported that global smartphone shipments grew 5% year-over-year to 309.9 million units in the third quarter of 2024, the strongest three-quarter performance since 2021.

Samsung came in first with 57.5 million units shipped. Apple shipped a record 54.5 million units to take second place. Xiaomi ranked third with 42.8 million units shipped and a 14% market share. oppo and vivo ranked fourth and fifth with 28.6 million and 27.2 million units shipped respectively.

7.NXP will use Grofound 22FDX process to optimize the car core and other products

NXP (NXP) and wafer foundry Grofoundry on the 23rd announced cooperation, will use the latter 22FDX process to optimize the power consumption, performance and time to market of NXP solutions. The Globodyne 22FDX chips will be manufactured in Dresden and Malta, New York, providing geographically diverse supply to NXP's customers.

Designed for edge intelligence and optimized for energy management, the 22FDX delivers up to 50% higher performance and 70% lower power consumption than other CMOS technologies. 22FDX ensures superior reliability in extreme automotive conditions. As part of the Ge-Xin AutoPro solution, the 22FDX platform includes advanced high-temperature resistance up to 150 degrees junction temperature, which is critical to ensuring the long-term durability and safety of vehicle electronics systems.