Infineon bets big on nation's semiconductor market

German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG says it aims to achieve double-digit growth this year in China－a country that's playing an increasingly important role in its business as a whole.

"China has gained strong momentum in the semiconductor sector and it has also contributed to around one fourth of the company's sales volume in the last fiscal year," said Su Hua, president of Infineon in China.

"I believe that this growth momentum will continue this year and will be better than the overall growth rate of the company," he added.

Infineon, the producer of key semiconductors that help drive China Railway Rolling Stock Corp's high-speed railways, posted revenue of 7.06 billion euros ($8.4 billion) in its 2017 fiscal year ending in September, which was a 9 percent increase year-on-year.

According to Su, Infineon has benefited and will continue to benefit from China's growing new-energy vehicles market, the energy sector and the "Made in China 2025"strategy, which was designed to promote the country's high-end manufacturing.

Su also pointed out that the company will focus on key emerging markets to apply advanced technologies and products in burgeoning fields including electric vehicles, renewable energy and the internet of things.

Notably, the German company is also a global leader in automotive electronics, with more than 40 years of experience and technical innovation ability in automotive semiconductors.

On Tuesday, Infineon announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it was joining the Apollo Program of Baidu Inc to promote the development of autonomous driving technology.

Globally, the revenue of Infineon's automotive unit hit 2.99 billion euros in the 2017 fiscal year, contributing 42 percent to the company's total.

"To develop intelligent connected vehicles, we must first guarantee the safety and security of the cars and drivers. After all, the ultimate goal of vehicles is to take passengers from one place to another safely," said Xu Hui, head of the automotive division of Infineon China.

"We will endeavor to develop automotive semiconductors and the automotive electronics ecosystem to accelerate automotive intelligence in China," she added.

Statistics from Strategy Analytics show that Infineon ranked No 2 in the world's vehicle semiconductor market, with a market share of 10.7 percent as of April 2017.