ICE shares fall due to weak chip demand
2023.01.16 07:25
Budrigannews.com – IQE shares (LON:) sank as much as 20% to a two-month low on Monday after a silicon chip wafer manufacturer warned of a slowdown in demand from an overstocked chipmaking industry.
“The Group expects to see some destocking in the wider industry in the first half of 2023 which may impact upon demand from existing customers,” IQE stated, dampening some of the optimism surrounding its stock that had grown in recent weeks as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:) as well as Broadcom (NASDAQ:) had appeared to handle a slowdown in electronics demand quite well.
IQE stated in an update prior to the release of its full-year results that it anticipates revenue in 2022 to have increased by approximately 8% from £154 million (£1 equals $1.2206) in 2021. However, the entire increase will be attributable to the year’s weakness: It stated that revenue was largely flat from 2021 when adjusted for changes in the value of the pound. The bottom line, which had shown a loss of over £8 million after the first six months of the year, was not mentioned in any way.
“Remains confident in its diversification strategy and longer-term growth targets” and “strong commercial progress” were cited by IQE as the company’s 2022 accomplishments.
Building on its strength in epitaxial wafers, or epiwafers, IQE stated in November that it intends to triple its annual revenue by 2027. It anticipates a 22% annual increase in global demand for these, which will result in a $4.6B market by 2027.
After a brief uptick earlier, IQE stock was down 19.7% by 05:50 ET (10:50 GMT), testing its intraday lows once more.
