Infineon hopes to lift sales in Q2 after weak Q1

German semiconductors giant Infineon said on Thursday it hopes to lift sales in the second quarter and is sticking to its full-year, despite a weak first quarter. Infineon, which runs its business year from October to December, said in a statement that first-quarter sales declined, as expected, by 7.0 percent to 984 million euros ($1.3 billion). Net profit was down 39 percent at 87 million euros. The decline was in line with forecast since the period from October to December is traditionally weak. "Infineon has made a good start into the new fiscal year. Revenue has developed in line with forecast during the first quarter. Earnings were better than expected, benefitting from the efficiency measures undertaken at our manufacturing facilities," said chief executive Reinhard Ploss. "Good order intake and positive forecasts for the global economy underpin our outlook. Infineon is poised to profitably grow in 2014," he said. Looking to the second quarter, Infineon said sales were forecast to rise by "a mid single digit percentage, primarily as a result of higher revenue in the automotive and chip card and security divisions." And looking at the year as a whole, Infineon "continues to forecast an increase in revenue of between 7.0 and 11 percent," it said.