STMicroelectronics NV
OTC:STMEF
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STMicroelectronics NV
Earnings Call Analysis
Q1-2024 Analysis
STMicroelectronics NV
In the first quarter of 2024, the company reported net revenues of $3.47 billion, a year-over-year decline of 18.4%, and sequentially down by 19.1%. The gross margin also decreased to 41.7% from 49.7% a year ago. These declines were primarily driven by weaker performances in the Automotive and Industrial segments, although Personal Electronics saw some growth. Operating margin was hit significantly, dropping to 15.9% from 28.3% the previous year. As a result, net income plunged by 50.9% to $513 million.
The company faced broad-based challenges, particularly in the Automotive and Industrial sectors. Automotive demand declined toward the end of the quarter, and Industrial bookings remained weak, indicating a prolonged inventory correction. For instance, the Industrial segment fell by more than 40% year-over-year, significantly impacting overall performance. Personal electronics, however, saw a decline of about 13%, which was relatively moderate compared to other segments.
Looking ahead to Q2 2024, the company estimates net revenues at around $3.2 billion, representing a 26% decline year-over-year and a 7.6% sequential drop. The gross margin is expected to be about 40%. For the full year 2024, the company now projects revenues between $14 billion and $15 billion, with a gross margin in the low 40s. This adjusted forecast acknowledges the deteriorating market conditions and prolonged inventory corrections in the Industrial sector. They also expect capital expenditures to be around $2.5 billion, focusing on strategic manufacturing initiatives.
In Q1 2024, the Analog Products, MEMS, and Sensor segment decreased by 13.1%, mainly due to MEMS and Imaging. Power & Discrete products fell by 9.8%, driven largely by discrete components. Microcontrollers saw a sharp decline of 34.4%, largely due to general-purpose microcontrollers. Digital ICs and RF products dropped by 2.1%, with declines in ADAS offsetting growth in RF communications. By market, Industrial saw a 40% decline, Personal Electronics fell by 13%, and Automotive and Communication equipment each saw smaller declines.
Despite the challenging environment, the company continued to focus on strategic areas. They maintained a net CapEx plan of around $2.5 billion for 2024 to support strategic manufacturing initiatives. Inventories at the end of Q1 were $2.69 billion, slightly down from $2.87 billion a year ago. Cash flow from operating activities decreased to $859 million from $1.32 billion the previous year. Free cash flow was negative at $134 million, compared to a positive $206 million a year earlier.
In the Automotive market, the company reported a deceleration phase, revising down previous growth expectations. They now expect automotive revenues to slightly grow by 1-2%, a significant downgrade from an earlier forecast of high single-digit to low double-digit growth. This revised forecast takes into account a reduction in the electric vehicle production forecast from a key customer.
On a brighter note, the company reported significant wins in their third-generation silicon carbide MOSFET technology and smart fuses used in automotive applications. These advancements are expected to strengthen their position in the future automotive market despite near-term challenges. They also continue to see good momentum in automotive microcontrollers and design wins in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
The company remains committed to its long-term target of carbon neutrality by 2027. They have already achieved a 71% usage of renewable energy as of 2023. They plan to further this commitment with long-term power purchasing agreements and are focused on specific strategic projects that align with these environmental goals.
Overall, 2024 is shaping up to be a challenging year for the company, marked by significant revenue declines and market pressures. However, their focus on strategic initiatives, commitment to environmental goals, and efforts to manage inventory and capital expenditures position them to navigate these challenges. Investors should keep an eye on the company’s ability to adapt to ongoing market conditions and its progress in strategic projects, especially in the Automotive and Industrial sectors.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the STMicroelectronics First Quarter 2024 Earnings Release Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Moira, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]
At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Celine Berthier, Group Vice President, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you, everyone, for joining our first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Hosting the call today is Jean-Marc Chery, ST's President and Chief Executive Officer. Joining Jean-Marc on the call today are Lorenzo Grandi, President of Finance, Purchase, ERM and resilience, our Chief Financial Officer; Marco Cassis, President, Analog Power and Discrete and Sensor Group, Head of STMicroelectronics strategy, system research and application and innovation office.
This live webcast and presentation materials can be accessed on ST's Investor Relations website. A replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of this call.
This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risk factors that could cause these results to differ materially from management's expectations and plans. We encourage you to review the safe harbor statement contained in the press release that was issued with the results this morning and also in ST's most recent regulatory filings for a full description of these risk factors.
Also, to ensure all participants have an opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A session, please limit yourself to one question and a brief follow-up. I'd now like to turn the call over to Jean-Marc, ST's President and CEO.
Thank you, Celine. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining ST [indiscernible] Q1 2024 earnings conference call. Let me begin with some opening comments.
Starting with Q1. First quarter net revenues of $3.47 billion and gross margin of 41.7%, both came in below the midpoint of our business outlook range, driven by lower revenues in Automotive and Industrial partially offset by higher revenues in personal electronics. Looking at our year-over-year performance, Q1 net revenues decreased 18.4%. Gross margin at 41.7% was down from 49.7%. Operating margin decreased to 15.9% from 28.3%, and net income decreased 50.9% to $513 million. On a sequential basis, net revenues decreased 19.1%.
During the first quarter, our customer order bookings remained weak in industrial across all geographies and much lower than expected. This indicates that the industrial inventory correction will be stronger and last longer than anticipated in January. Additionally, towards the end of the quarter, we started to see some reduction in automotive backlog.
On Q2 2024. Our second quarter business outlook is for net revenues of about $3.2 billion at the midpoint. Declining year-over-year by 26% and sequentially by 7.6%. Gross margin is expected to be about 40%.
For the full year 2024, compared with our January expectations, the market environment has further deteriorated. With an even stronger inventory correction in industrial, slowing the expected growth in the second half of the year compared to our previous expectations. Automotive has entered a deceleration phase with demand slowing down compared to our January expectations.
We will now drive the company based on a revised plan for full year 2024 revenues in the range of $14 billion to $15 million. Within this plan, we expect a gross margin in the low 40s. We plan to maintain our net CapEx plan for full year about $2.5 billion, focusing on our strategic manufacturing initiatives.
Now I will move to a detailed review of the first quarter. Before commenting Q1 results, let me remind you that starting in 2024, ST is organized in two product groups split in four reportable segments. Therefore, from Q1 2024, we report revenues and operating income according to those four new reportable segments.
In Q1, net revenues decreased about 18.4% year-over-year. Analog Products, MEMS and Sensor was down 13.1%, mainly due to MEMS and Imaging. Power & Discrete products decreased 9.8%, mainly due to discrete. Microcontrollers revenues declined 34.4%, mainly due to general purpose microcontroller. Digitalizes and radio frequency products declined 2.1% due to a decrease in ADAS, more than offsetting an increase in roof frequency communications. By end market, Industrial declined more than 40%. Personal electronics about 13%. CCPs communication equipment and computer peripheral and automotive about 2%. Year-over-year, sales decreased 11.5% to OEMs and 30.8% to distribution.
On a sequential basis, Q1 net revenues came in 320 basis points below the midpoint of our outlook. Mainly reflecting lower revenues in automotive and industrial, partially offset by higher revenues in personal electronics.
Overall, Q1 net revenues decreased 19.1% sequentially with a decline of 14.2% in analog products, MEMs and sensors, 15.1% in Power & Discrete and 25.3% in microcontrollers and 23.8% in digital ICs and RF products.
Looking by end market, Industrial was down 28% sequentially. Personal Electronics, 21%; CECP 15%; and automotive 14%. Excluding the impact of capacity resolution fees and specific customer 2023 inventory replenishment effect. Automotive was down 8%. Gross profit was $1.44 billion, decreasing 31.6% year-over-year. Gross margin of 41.7%, 60 basis points below the midpoint of ST guidance decreased 800 basis points year-over-year mainly due to the combination of sales price and product mix, unused capacity charges and reduced manufacturing efficiencies.
Operating margin was 15.9% compared to 28.3% in the year ago period. All reportable segments were down on a year-over-year basis. with a net decline in MCU and power discrete. On a year-over-year basis, net income decreased 50.9% to $530 million from $1.04 billion and diluted earnings per share decreased 50.9% to $0.55 from $1.10.
Net cash from operating activities decreased to $859 million in Q1 compared to $1.32 billion in the year ago quarter. First quarter net CapEx was $967 million compared to $1.09 billion in the year ago quarter. Free cash flow was negative at $134 million compared to positive $206 million in the year ago quarter. Inventory at the end of the first quarter was $2.69 billion compared to $2.87 million in the year ago quarter. Days sales of inventory at quarter end was 122 days compared to 104 days in the previous quarter and 122 days in the year ago quarter. Cash dividends paid to stockholders in Q1 2024 totaled $48 million. In addition, executed share buybacks of $87 million as part of our current share repurchase program. ST net financial position of $3.13 billion as of March 30, 2024, reflect total liquidity of $6.24 billion and total financial debt of $3.11 billion.
I will now go through a short update on some of our strategic focus areas in Q1. In Automotive, we saw a slowdown in semiconductor demand compared to our January expectations. This was characterized by some reduction in backlog and reduced forecast from some of our customers, including adjustments related to electric vehicle production decreased. We continue to execute our strategy, supporting car electrification during the quarter. We had wins with our third-generation silicon carbide MOSFET technology for traction inverters at a top manufacturer of electric vehicles as well as with the maker of compressor controller that extend EV driving bench, increasing our current design win pipeline. We also won sockets with our smart fuses in new automotive architecture designs with multiple customers.
In current digitalization, we saw further momentum with our portfolio of automotive microcontrollers. This included with our later generation stellar MCUs in zonal control, drive train and chassis solution for a major truck maker. In ADAS, our partner Mobile has delivered first production candidate hardware and software of the IQ 6 light to customers. The IQ 6 light is already set to be installed in 46 million vehicles over the next few years. Our pipeline of design wins in smart mobility confirms the strength of our technology and product portfolio to successfully take advantage of the continued structural growth of this key market for ST.
In Industrial, during the quarter, the ongoing correction accelerated it is impacting all the main subsegments, both in consumer and in B2B industrial and is spread globally. In industrial embedded processing solutions. In March, we held our flagship [ FTN32-submit event ], which attracted an audience of over 5,000 developers around the world. Around this event, we announced new low-cost wanes and high-performance microcontrollers as well as new devices in our 64 micro processed bids array, 64 bps by coprocessor family.
We also announced an advanced process based on 80-nanometer NDSOI with embedded exchange memory to support next-generation embedded processing device. For developers using sensors for industrial applications, we introduced a new all-in-one tool for MEMS sensor evaluation and development. connected closely with STM32 microcontroller ecosystem. It supports our wide portfolio of MEMs sensors and include tools for embedding AI in inertial venues.
We continued to develop momentum on AI with increasing usage of our tools and solutions by customers. For example, we announced recently a [indiscernible] tire pressure monitoring system for a back based on HI [indiscernible] running on an STM32 microcontroller.
We also announced a collaboration on the reference design for high-performance telecom and AI server power supply with [indiscernible] supplies high efficiency power solution for high-performance computing, AI, deep learning, cloud and other advanced solutions, applications. Its ST silicon carbide, galvanic isolation and microcontroller technologies. This is an important collaboration since it brings on top of our focus on AI, another opportunity around AI for the new power architecture for AI servers. In power energy management applications, we had a broad range of design wins, including in data centers, renewable energy systems white goods and factory automation. Overall, we believe that the sustained design-in and development activity with our customers and distributors in industrial will enable ST to take advantage of the next market up cycle in an even stronger position.
In Personal Electronics and computer peripherals, during Q1, all our engaged customer programs were running as expected in a market context of stabilization, driven by AI. In communication equipment, we received awards for RF front ailing modem solutions from a new player in the EO satellite market.
Finally, I would like to mention that we have recently published our 27th Annual Sustainability Report, highlighting our long-standing commitment in this area. We continue to make substantial progress towards our ambitious targets for carbon neutrality. In 2023, our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions were down in absolute terms compared to 2018, and we source now 71% renewable energy. On track, to reach our target of 100% by 2027. Long-term power purchasing agreements are a key part of our strategy, and we signed another significant segment in Italy earlier this month.
Now let's move to our second quarter 2024 financial outlook and our plans for the full year 2024. [indiscernible] we now expect net revenues to be about $3.2 billion at the midpoint, representing a year-over-year decrease of about 26% and a sequential decrease of about 7.6%. We revised down our plan for full year 2024 revenues to be in the range of $14 billion to $15 billion representing a decline over 2023 of about 19% to 13%. This takes into consideration the accelerated inventory correction in industrial as well as a deceleration phase starting in automotive. We plan to maintain our plan to invest about $2.5 billion in net CapEx focusing on our strategic manufacturing initiatives.
To conclude, we continue to adapt our plans according to this asset [indiscernible] market dynamics with a down cycle in industrial, a deceleration in automotive and the stabilization in personal electronics and computer peripheral. In parallel, we will continue to execute our strategic initiatives consistently with our established strategy and operating model. Thank you for your attention, and we are ready to answer your questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
The first question is from Joshua Buchalter from TD Cowen.
I guess to start, obviously, see the numbers coming down a little bit, but I wanted to try to break that up a little bit. And obviously, there have been some headlines at your lead silicon carbide customer. Could you maybe spend a minute or two walking us through how much of the lowered outlook in particular in auto is related to the lead customer and maybe update us on your silicon carbide outlook for 2024.
So I will take the question. Yes, in automotive, okay, compared to our, let's say, January expectation for the full year. we have acknowledged a decrease. Half of the decrease is related to electrical vehicle production decrease an important customer. And half of the decrease in automotive is more related to what we say, some inventory control and tuning from OEM which are adapting themselves to mix change between battery-based electrical vehicles, hybrid vehicle and thermal combustion engine 1. So the decrease -- the deceleration phase means okay, what we have announced today in automotive. As a takeaway, half is linked to an adjustment, okay, of the forecast because production decreased from one important customer. And the other one is more inventory control and mix adjustment because now it's well known that carmaker the change the need between electrical car, hybrid car and thermal combustion engine 1. .
Got it. I appreciate the color. As a follow-up, Obviously, you understand again, numbers are coming down and you mentioned that industrial weakness is expected to last into the second half. Maybe you can give us sort of your -- some of the assumptions that are underlying the back half ramp and First, there's some seasonality at your lead customer. Maybe you could help us give us some clues on how much of that is driving sort of the back half ramp? And then also big picture, how is your comfort level with where you expect your industrial customers' inventory levels to be coming out of the second quarter?
Well, overall, yes, we believe that Q2 is a bottom point. Within the range we have indicated Clearly, we expect a growth in H2. This growth will, let's say, overall enabled ST to come back 2023 revenue run rate between Q4 2024 and Q1. Automotive, let's say, will increase in H2. Personal electronics will increase in H2 related to our engaged customer program. And industrial, we start to smoothly increase in Q3 and accelerated in Q4. .
Of course, we have a pretty good visibility on backlog in automotive, personal electronics and computer equipment and computer peripheral. We know that the visibility on industrial is shorter because again, there is a important distraction related to inventory level, both at OEM level and in the channel. However, we see some, let's say, kind of green spot that makes us thinking that order will come back in Q2 for additional billings in Q3 smoothly and acceleration in Q4. The risk is embedded in the range of what we have indicated.
The next question is from Stephane Houri from Oddo.
Actually, the is on my side on the automotive. You've talked about deceleration, but I guess that you mean decline in fact. So can you maybe specify it? And also, if you could give us some clarification on what you expect for silicon carbide going forward. You've talked about lower EV forecasts. What are you expecting for this year? Are you still targeting the same targets for 2025 and beyond?
We classify the deceleration. What we indicated in January, we say as computed because we are not reporting the segment, the automotive overall was expected to grow, let's say, a low mid-single digit and clean from effect that we share with you. So capacity reservation fees and one really specific, let's say, inventory or is present.
In January, okay, our expectation was to have automotive growing, let's say, high single digit, really low double-digit. But now if I repeat the same view, let's say, for the year, Automotive has computed and reported will decrease clearly. And if we remove from the capacity reversion fee and inventory of one specific customer, it is a very slight growth, 1% to 2%. That's the reason why we classify it a deceleration and not a correction of not a decrease, which is the case clearly of industrial.
[indiscernible] silicon carbide because you asked a question. We do believe that our revenues this year will go about $1.3 billion. So it's a growth let's say, about $150 million, $200 million compared to last year. Yes, it is a slower growth when we compare '23 versus '22 and which was basically USD 500 million. But again, it is related to the fact that there is what specific important customer that adjusted their plan for the full year 2024. For the rest, we see some, let's say, change, big change, okay, some time from module to package or not good die. So we have to adapt our sales okay to this change. However, I would like to repeat that -- this doesn't change our view that still will reach above $5 billion in 2030. And that, okay, we will have, of course, a growth in 2025 that will put us on this trajectory. And the course in 2025, should be expected with design or we have about USD 500 million.
Okay. Okay. And I've got a follow-up about the gross margin actually. With such a strong decline in sales through the year. I would have expected a stronger impact on gross margin. Can you maybe give us the elements of the resistance of the gross margin and maybe specify also with the underutilization charges to.
Yes. And maybe I take this question. When we are exiting the -- with the current visibility on Q2 on our guidance, we will exit the first half of the year with a gross margin that is slightly below, let's say, the 41% because -- and this is impacted by a significant level of unsaturation charges because we will have around 230 basis points of unloading. When we look at the projection of the year. At this point, let's say, we are -- our expectation for the second half is to improve our gross margin in respect to the first half about very slightly because the level of operation will remain quite significant.
The second half will be impacted by more than 200 basis points or similar to the one of Q1. So we do expect that to be substantially similar to the -- what is happening in the first half, slightly improving. Maybe while in H1, we will be slightly below 41%. In the second half, we will be slightly above 41%. And the level of unsaturation that is peaking in Q2 will go down but remaining quite significant. So there will be a sort of flattish gross margin in the range of 40%, 41% during the year.
Next question is from Francois Bouvignies from UBS.
I just wanted to come back on the full year guidance. Jean-Marc, you talked about the automotive will decrease 5% for this year, if reported basis. Can you maybe give the color on the other divisions, what you expect for the full year by end market and ideally by products as well, if that would be great to have the full year implied for each products and end markets.
Lorenzo, maybe you can comment, okay, this full year by reportable segment.
Okay. We can have a look at the full year, let's say, by reportable segment. As you know, these are the new reportable segment. When we look at the analog product MEMs and sensor, this, let's say, the expectation to be around a decline of 10% for this and where we will have a substantially holding in the analog products reflective in the analog products. MEMS are softening with a little bit more with some decline and both then don't forget that here is where we account imaging. And here, there is this impact related to the module that was present in 2023 is not any longer present in 2024 and imaging is declining. When you take it out that this impact, actually image is not a decline, but as reported is declining. So this sector and other product MEMS and sensor will decline in the range this based on the expectations.
Power & Discrete. Power & Discrete will be a lower decline. We will be in the range of mid-single digit for these areas. In which the bigger decline is on discrete part. Then we have a microcontroller. Here in microcontroller definitely is the area in which the general costs are particularly impacted by the dynamic of the market of industrial. So here, the decline will be significant will be in the range of 30%, which is much more resilient on the microcontroller in automotive, but a significant decline for the microcontroller general papers that are mainly addressing the industrial market.
Finally, the digitalized season RF, here, the decline will be also in this case, in the range of 10%. I'm talking, of course, decline at the midpoint of our indication for the year. And here is in the range of around 10%. Here, the main impact is coming from a decline in the ADAS product, where you know that last year, we had this replenishment of inventory in one particular customer. So this year, these areas of our product that these products will decline. While on the other side, RF communication will increase. our revenues, but not enough in order to offset the decline on the other areas. This is more or less a dynamic that we see for the year in terms of segment reporting.
Industrial, just industrial and personal electronics. I mean, I guess, SMC Industrial, roughly the same. That's what we should look at.
Clearly, I complement Lorenzo point. And so I repeat. So automotive, we see a minus 5 clean, let's say 1%, industrial, minus 30%. So for sure, you can correlate now what we anticipate on general purpose which is the most impacted by in [indiscernible], but in a certain extent, General Corp was analog and power discrete as well for personal electronics clean from the famous module, we have no more. Basically, it will be slightly decreasing, minus 2%, minus 3%, which is consistent, okay, with the overall market.
And on CCP, okay, it will be minus 4%. With a strong growth within our one customer program in the LEO satellite, which is offset by legacy, we decided to disengage. So we see the perfect correlation, in fact, between products, so microcontroller, power and general purpose analog versus industrial. And we also see, as I have said in my script, the correlation between the OEM decreasing much less than the distribution. So more barely an industry-owned market, it is an inventory correction along the channel.
Great. And maybe my follow-up would be on the pricing front? I mean it's kind of a housekeeping question nowadays. Every quarter, we want to have some color on the pricing, given the level of demand and potential overcapacity. Do you see any move here on the pricing front, maybe not for this quarter, but going forward, what is the name that you see and how China is impacting the pricing in the market?
I take the question Mark. In terms of pricing, what can you say is that in Q1, we were saying entering in the quarter that we're expecting, let's say, something in the low single-digit price impact. But at the end, this is what happened was a slightly a few basis points higher than our expectation not dramatically different than our expectation. Of course, with the different dynamics because there are much more resilience in some areas, in geography and in some final market. automotive is more resilient. While for sure, in some geographies like maybe Asia and industrial, the price pressure is a little bit higher. But we still remain in this level. We have not seen a significant drop in pricing the assumption that we have today, visibility, I would say, more than the assumption that we have today for the current quarter is that there is still some price erosion like say in the range of 1%, 1.5%. And stability, definitely stability in automotive, where the renegotiation has been already done. But still some decline in -- especially, we continue to see some decline in Industrial in our general purpose microcontroller.
But we have taken this assumption that some erosion will continue over the next quarters. Without taking assumption that there will be a significant drop. For the time being, we don't see this. We see that there is a normal discussion in terms of pricing with some erosion of course, on the areas in which the demand is weaker and maybe in some geographies in which the pressures are to be a little bit higher. But I repeat in our visibility today, we do not embed stronger price decline as we have no evidence for that in our discussion with the customers.
The next question is from Didier Scemama from Bank of America.
Just wondered about the second half. I mean, the last 4 quarters, you've been effectively well below normal seasonality, and your second half guide effectively seasonal versus the first half. I appreciate, look, it's a difficult environment, especially in industrial. You've got now a beginning of a downturn in automotive. What's the risk really remark that you are sandbagging a bit too much in the second half at this stage? And related to that, what's the risk also that your gross margin guidance for the second half is a bit too conservative? And I've got a follow-up.
Well, basically, in the second half of 2024 in the middle of the range we have indicated we expect to grow, I have to say about $1 billion, a little bit higher than $1 billion. It is clear that part of this growth is related to backlog we have already, especially in engage customer program both in personal electronics and communication equipment. It is based also on automotive on the backlog of the frame order we had, okay, which is the usual visibility we have.
One, the key question is clearly the industrial where today, the backlog coverage is slightly below, I have to say, standard of backlog coverage as this period of time. But again, we know because there is two distortions, very short lead time from any, let's say, semiconductor supplier and distortion from inventory. It is clear that, again, the booking that we will enter in Q2 and Q3, be label for 2024 for industry as well as the business in Q4 will be important. At this stage, having made the reset that we share with you today, we consider the risk to the industry or that potentially would not materialize in H2 is within range, we have indicated. That's the reason why, okay, we have done this significantly set compares the midpoint of what we say in January of about $1.9 billion. I guess you have already done the computation.
This $1.9 billion, $1.3 billion is industrial, by the way, and 600 [indiscernible] is automotive. And I said automotive half is electrical car from one specific. And the other one is a mix change, okay, and inventory correction. On industrial, okay, again, having made this $1.3 billion adjustment. Now we do believe even if we have to continue to monitor very carefully. The plan we have of booking billable in 2024, the risk is within the launch we have provided.
Sorry, maybe I can add two words about the gross margin. But I think that at this stage, our visibility on the gross margin is that the second half in the range of 41%, slightly above 41% vis-a-vis enable assumption considering the fact that for sure, at this level, let's say, we will continue this level of revenues. We will continue to have a significant level of unloading charges.
We are planning the second half at 77% loading for our trucks as we will, let's say, continue to keep under control at the level of our impact. But there could be some opportunity maybe to do better. That could be, as usual, some risk if maybe the price pressure is higher and what we have embedded. But I think that this level, this is a resonator level in which the company should stay all over the year.
And obviously, if industrial comes back a bit better, your margins will be better. I just have a quick question on your automotive business, Jean-Marc. So one of your customers publicly disclosed that they're going to accelerate the introduction of lower-priced electrical vehicles. And I think you had sort of articulated in the past that you felt like you were pretty well positioned to capture the platform for that particular customer. So I wondered: A, is the $500 million you just mentioned earlier in your script related to that? And then, B, how do you feel about your position now that, that ramp is coming a bit earlier than expected?
It's clear that on, first of all, this year, the $1.3 billion for silicon carbide MOSFET is growth. So we have to be satisfied with this growth. Yes, it's below our expectation. Why? Because mainly on customer classify the 2024 year as a transition and expect, okay, to come back to a growth trajectory, '25 and beyond. We will participate to this growth trajectory. And of course, it will contribute to the USD 500 million growth of silicon carbide, we will execute next year.
Maybe a final quick one, if I may. Any changes or any reason why we should not look at your 2025, 2027 financial ambition, 20 billion of revenue, 50% gross margin, 30% operating margin. Has anything changed in that -- perhaps more back-end loaded, I appreciate that, but anything changed in your mind?
We have not changed our model. By the way, we expect this year to organize the Capital Market Day in November, the Investor Relations will communicate to you. And of course, it will be a unique opportunity to share the situation and to share the update.
The next question is from Andrew Gardiner from Citi. .
I just was interested in the point you're making, Jean-Marc on industrial and in particular, into distribution inventory. You've given us an update in your prepared comments regarding where you sit on your own books. But where do you view things in the channel at the moment? How much further are you expecting things to decrease? And therefore, so how is that therefore influencing the where you're framing the second half?
Well, today, overall, we have assessed that we have an excess of inventory in the channel distribution of about 2 months. Clearly, the POS, okay, of the distributor will be the first that will start, okay, to decrease these 2 months of inventory. And with the visibility and the discussion we have with them, in that is these 2 months, okay, will be absorbed, okay, by Q3. And that's okay. By Q3, we will be in position to reincrease smoothly our POP and to accelerate in Q4. Well, unfortunately, that's the reason why in Q2, we cannot accelerate our POP that's the reason why we continue to decrease in industrial. So this is the visibility we have today.
So again, POS monitoring is very critical. But again, we are seeing some green spot that the end customer and applications, some end applications are coming back to growth. And sequentially, okay, it will Consulate in POS increased and start to translate in inventory decrease and for us, increase in Q3. So this is today the plan we have built discussing with our customers and also what is making us confident is that looking at some results of competition going straight to end customers, we have seen a restart. So means when the channel inventory will be absorbed, our POP will raise again.
Also, perhaps one for you, Lorenzo, as we're coming through a slightly deeper trough in the cycle than anticipated, how are you managing the OpEx for the year? Can you just sort of update us in terms of the levels we should have in our model?
Of course, this year, we will have control of our OpEx for which we will continue to protect for sure, the innovation and the R&D but we will prioritize other programs, let's say, that are definitely important, but if you want less critical than, let's say, the innovation and the introduction of the new products. So today, we do expect for the year compared to last year, a moderate increase in our expenses. We do not expect a decline a moderate increase that we size between 2%, 2.5%.
Consider also that I'm talking about net OpEx means that including also the level of grants that are increasing this year in respect to last year. This is more or less what we see today for the evolution of our OpEx in the year in 2024.
The next question is from Sandeep Deshpande from JPMorgan.
I have a question firstly in terms of your guidance, clearly, I mean, there has been inventory overhang in your supply chain and slowdown in the market. But is there any impact from pricing in the guidance at all? And what do you see in terms of the pricing environment at the moment in microcontrollers specifically as well as in your discrete market?
I take this question, Sandeep. Yes, as I was saying before, we have a better some pricing impact in our indication of the -- for sure, there are, as I was saying before, different dynamics between the different markets that we serve. The most impacted in terms of pricing is microcontroller, definitely. Industrial in general and micro control. Anyway, when we look overall, the dynamic, for instance, when I look at the dynamic of our price decrease was in the range of low single digits, a little bit higher than what we were expecting, and this is also partially explaining why we missed partially our gross margin midpoint guidance, but not dramatically higher.
Moving forward, we continue to expect some erosion, let's say, for instance, in Q1, average company, considering that some areas like automotive, we have a renegotiation now there is no any longer prices moving forward or not so [indiscernible] and not so big. Let's say, we have a model something in the range of 1%, 1.5% price decline. And moving forward in Q3 and Q4, some still, let's say, price decline. As I was saying before, in any case, at this stage, we don't see a huge impact on pricing, a very significant impact on pricing. For sure, in some areas, I repeat, like microcontroller. In some geographies, yes, it's a little bit higher than the average of the company, definitely higher than the average of the comp. And this is what's been embedded in our numbers.
And I mean just following up on that question, I mean, automotive, as you said, is not changing at all this year. I mean you will negotiate new prices in December mean that actually means that there is another price change next year in auto was given that the industrial market, which uses similar chips you're seeing a big correction this year, but then a correction this year. And then autos will see that next year in the pricing. And then following on that, I mean, on the gross margin, are there any one-offs in your gross margin this year? I mean, clearly, you talked about the underutilization charge in the year, but there were some positives last year. Are there any positives being repeated this year, which is helping your gross margin at all?
In terms of pricing, what can I say is that the main let's say, discussion with the Tier 1 are van. So the price has been embedded in this dynamic. So we do not expect this was not embedded at this stage any renegotiate in terms of price for 2024. What -- for what concern the impact of gross margin, well, you have not to forget that our gross margin more than on one time is helped by the capacity reservation fees. These are not disappeared this year in respect to last year. Yes, they are not high like it was last year. They are declining in respect to last year. Still they are, let's say, giving a positive impact. So this is also if you want also answering to your first point about pricing in automotive. Of course, we have the capacity restation fees still there. You understand that there is no strong pressure here, there is still, let's say, from our customer, they're willing to secure the capacity to secure the availability of the part. As we have said already in the past, this is an element that definitely we will see declining over the next year and the following years because we know we have already, let's say, the contract done yes, this will go down moving forward. This year, definitely is still an element that is impacting positively our gross margin I would say, in a meaningful way, still a positive impact .
Okay. So we have time for one last question.
The last question is from Jerome Ramel from BNP Paribas.
Yes. Quick two questions. The first one would be, where are the lead times currently? And what is the loading of your front end fab. And then I have a quick follow-up.
Midtime with average are below 3 months, is very short. And taking into account the inventory level we have. We are also capable okay to capture some spot term business within the quarter quite easy. Shares for a loading...
And loading let's say, Q2 is really the bottom, I would say, because in Q2, we see a front loading of 72% for our fabs. With a significant impact in terms of loading charges. They will be in the range of 300 basis points on our gross margin in this quarter. So it's an important impact. Notwithstanding this with this level of revenues, we see our inventory increase in terms of value because we were launching our production with a different expectation for the evolution of the second half. But the number of days will increase we will continue to keep under control our inventory. So in the second part of the year, the unloading charges, which continue to be material and the level of saturation of our fab will increase, but not so much. We will remain in the range of 77%. So similar to the one of Q1, if you want.
At the end, we do expect that our inventory exiting our inventory with 110, 115 days. That is a little bit higher in respect to our model, if you wanted for our year like 2024, I think it control is the right level.
Any other follow-up?
Yeah I had follow-up concerning China, all the fears around China ramping up capacity for one node and so on. What's your view and current visibility on Chinese customers? I assume recently, you signed some measure of silicon carbide deal with some car OEMs in China. So I just like to understand how you see the dynamics there.
Well, I think China is quite simple. China is no more super-long market. It's a market with some growth where clearly you have competitors pretty aggressive, but not including Chinese, believe me, American and Japanese as well. And here, the LCP are always the same, is to have the right features and performance of our device and the high quality and the right price. However, okay, I repeat that we have engaged ourselves inadequate, I believe, strategy for our footprint. So of course, with our salmon agreement for silicon carbide. But more and more, we are developing activity with Chinese foundry located in China for our microcontroller for BCD and for our other power [indiscernible]. So in such a situation, we are all thing [indiscernible] to be -- to compete in China because it is a key market for ST. And we believe, looking at the activity we have on designing and development on our STM32 and when we organize the [indiscernible]. And when we see what will -- we have in our pipeline that test will be a strong competitor in China for the future.
With this, I see at the end of the time. So this consider record.
Thank you. Thank you.
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