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12 Nov 2024
Weak automotive market and delayed semiconductor equipment upturn weigh on order intake.
Jenoptik has posted increased sales for the third quarter of 2024, but warned that it will not achieve its long-standing target of €1.2 billion revenues in 2025.
At €274 million, the total for the September quarter represents a year-on-year rise of 4 per cent, and means that the Germany-headquartered firm has delivered sales of €815 million so far this year.
That puts it on track to meet the forecast “mid-single-digit” uptick in revenues for the full year, assuming that the closing quarter contains no shocks, and annual sales in the region of €1.1 billion.
However, order intake in the first nine months of 2024 lags the levels reported a year ago - though that is largely the result of a sharp drop in demand for products sold by Jenoptik’s “non-photonics” business unit.
Automotive uncertainty
The company’s “advanced photonics solutions” division, by far Jenoptik’s largest by sales revenues, continues to perform well, with sales of €215 million in the latest quarter up 5 per cent on the same period last year.
And while that division’s order intake in the latest quarter looked healthy enough, CEO Stefan Traeger pointed to wider trends in the automotive and semiconductor equipment sectors that would put the brakes on further growth.
“We are now seeing a market environment marked by greater uncertainty, particularly in the automotive sector,” he said. “Nevertheless, given our good order backlog, we remain confident of achieving our 2024 targets.
“However, the cyclical upturn in the semiconductor equipment industry is expected to take place later than we originally anticipated. In view of this, we expect to achieve our 2025 targets in 2026.”
Non-photonics orders down
A deeper dive into the figures for order intake reveals that Jenoptik’s non-photonics portfolio generated orders of a little over €20 million in the September quarter - just one-third of the equivalent figure a year ago.
It means that, for the year so far, the non-photonics unit’s order intake is running at only around half the 2023 level.
Despite that and the delayed semiconductor upturn, Jenoptik says it remains committed to its expansion plans, and in particular the fit-out of its new site in Dresden, where production was slated to start in January.
“In view of the strong medium-term growth potential in the three future markets of semiconductor and electronics, life science and medical technology, and smart mobility, Jenoptik is further expanding its production capacities as planned, mainly through the construction of a new factory in Dresden for the semiconductor equipment industry, but also with capital expenditure in machinery and equipment,” stated the firm.
The increase in sales this year has also been reflected in Jenoptik’s bottom-line performance, with pre-tax-and-interest earnings of €40.9 million in the latest quarter up from €34.3 million a year ago.
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