Page 27 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

EE|Times EUROPE 27

MARKET & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
electronica 2020 CEO Roundtable:

Outlook Is Good

By Nitin Dahad

Clockwise from top left: STMicroelectronics’ Jean-Marc Chery, Pepperl + Fuchs’s Gunther Kegel, moderator Joachim Hofer (center),
NXP Semiconductors’ Kurt Sievers, and Infineon Technologies’ Reinhard Ploss

s it only happens every two years, Fuchs; Jean-Marc Chery, president and CEO, Sievers: The main driver was that end
electronica would have been greatly STMicroelectronics; Reinhard Ploss, president consumer demand for the types of products
missed this year had there not been and CEO, Infineon Technologies; and Kurt that are being adopted by people to stay
Asome buzz around the virtual event Sievers, president and CEO, NXP Semiconduc- in touch and in business has benefited the
to re-create the atmosphere of the traditional tors. With the pandemic top of mind around semiconductor industry. In addition, since
physical trade fair and conference. So among the globe, the CEOs shared their thoughts we work in a lot of contactless technologies,
all the supporting events (including Aspen- on the impact of Covid-19 on the electronics that is also a beneficiary, since people don’t
Core Media’s Embedded and Power Electronics industry. The consensus was that the semi- want to touch cash anymore and are relying
Forums), electronica 2020’s organizers man- conductor sector had been a key beneficiary of more on contactless payments. The third
aged to put on a virtual CEO roundtable. the surge in business and consumer demand factor is that the car industry is actually
for everything digital and virtual, and while recovering fast because people are trying to
The CEOs shared their the pandemic had been a big issue for 2020, avoid public transport.
the long-term strategic outlook was good.
Kegel: The car industry recovered since
thoughts on the impact of Moderator Joachim Hofer, Munich corre- June. With the lack of ability to forecast,
Covid-19 on the electronics spondent of the German business newspaper we did some scenario setting. We picked a
scenario in the early days of the pandemic
Handelsblatt, also asked the executives to
industry. The consensus was weigh in on U.S.-China tensions and how the forecasting recovery at the end of the year,
and that worked out well. It’s questionable if
U.S. president-elect’s administration might
that, while it had been a big affect that relationship; the factors driving we can recover what we lost in 2020, but there
issue for 2020, the long-term mega-acquisitions; and whether things ever is a positive outlook in 2021. One positive
aspect is from the effect of everyone turning
will — or should — get fully back to pre-
strategic outlook was good. pandemic “normal.” to buying online; that has seen intra-
EE Times Europe attended the live session logistics, one of our large customer segments,
to hear what the executives had to say. Here’s as a booming market sector.
An occasion for the CEOs of the leading a summary of their responses: Chery: We do believe that next year, the
European semiconductor companies to market will come back to a growth path. Some
speak freely about the major issues of the GROWTH DESPITE THE PANDEMIC verticals are going well, such as personal
day, the roundtable is traditionally a key The semiconductor industry has been doing electronics, computers, and infrastructure.
part of the show, and this year’s gathering relatively well despite the pandemic, the mod- We are seeing some megatrends, such as in
didn’t disappoint. The participating exec- erator noted. What did the CEOs think were the the electrification of cars. There are also good
utives were Gunther Kegel, CEO, Pepperl + drivers for that performance? signs in Europe and America for the industrial

www.eetimes.eu | DECEMBER 2020