Hello, and welcome to Melexis Q1 2022 results. My name is Rianne, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout the call, which can be done by pressing star one on your telephone key keypad. If you require assistance at any point, press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. For now, I'll hand you over to your host, Marc Biron, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you again to our earnings call related to the Q1 result. Today, we are, as usual, two speakers, Karen van Griensven, our CFO, and myself. Let's cover first some top line and financial background, after which Karen and myself will be available to answer any question you may have. Q1 comes with a sales level of EUR 184 million in the first quarter. It's a positive change of 11% in comparison to the previous quarter, and a change of 18% in comparison to the same quarter of last year. As a matter of fact, the market is still largely driven by the demand side.
Even if we have increased our guidance, thanks to the higher capacity in Q2, we remain very cautious given the uncertainties related to the impact of the geopolitical situation, the impact of the inflation, as well as the impact of the COVID in China. Obviously, those uncertainties could influence either the demand or the supply. In the context of continuous mismatch between the supply and the demand, the situation remains difficult to serve all the customers, and we are working diligently with our customers and with our supplier to keep this situation under control. We are also focused on a fair allocation for our product in 2023, while in parallel, we continue to work on our capacity improvement with our suppliers. Before ending, this comment, I would like to highlight some products that contribute positively to the outlook, in the future.
First, the current sensor shows the highest growth in percentage, thanks to the inverter application of the electric car. For the current sensor, we also see a very positive trend for this current sensor family in new applications, such as the onboard charger and the DC/DC application. The temperature product and the driver ICs secure also a very good growth. The temperature product are used either in automotive but also in non-automotive application. While the driver IC have a lot of traction in all the thermal management application of the electric car. I would like also to highlight the tire pressure monitoring sensor and the time-of-flight that will contribute positively in the mid-term trend. I'm now giving the hand to Karen for more financial results.
Thank you, Marc, and good morning to everybody. EUR 184 million sales in the first quarter, as Marc already mentioned. This came with a growth result of EUR 83.1 million or 45.2% of sales. 27% more compared to the same quarter of last year and 18% more compared to the previous quarter. R&D expenses were 11.1% of sales. G&A was at 5% of sales, and selling was at 2% of sales. The operating result was EUR 49.9 million or 27.1% of sales, plus 44% compared to the same quarter of last year, and plus 32% compared to the previous quarter. The net result was EUR 48.6 million or EUR 1.20 per share.
+75% compared to EUR 27.8 million or EUR 0.69 per share in the first quarter of 2021. 48% more compared to the previous quarter. If we go for the outlook, Melexis expects sales in the second quarter of 2022 to be around EUR 200 million. For the full- year 2022, Melexis expects a sales growth between 18% and 23%, with a gross profit margin of around 45% and an operating margin of around 25% at the midpoint of the sales guidance. All taking into account a euro U.S. dollar exchange rate of 1.09. This was high level, a bit more color on the financials. We would like now to open the Q&A session.
Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ruben Devos. If you would like to ask a question on today's call or make a contribution, please press star one. Ruben Devos from KBC Securities, you're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes, yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got a question related to the higher than anticipated capacity, which you talked about in the press release. Yeah, I was curious whether you could talk a bit about the operations situation, how that has improved compared to a few weeks or months ago. I remember early last year you mentioned that assembly and packaging was somewhat of a bottleneck, then early this year it was rather supply of wafers. Just, you know, if you could take us through what has been happening in the last few months from an operational standpoint, that will lead you to get more products out, that's very helpful.
Yeah. Marc will answer. Indeed, as you mentioned, it's at the beginning of this shortage, the assembly and the test were the bottleneck. Then later on, it was more the wafer fab. Indeed, the goal, let's say, is to increase all the capacity at the same time to avoid bottleneck. Then we have been able to have more wafers from X-FAB. It means that indeed the supply chain was more in equilibrium in terms of capacity. This is the main reason why, for Q2, we are able to increase the capacity.
Okay. I believe you said before that there was somewhat of a mismatch between supply and demand, about 20%-30%. I think that was the figure you said.
Mm-hmm.
Is that? Yeah, has that changed much in the meantime?
No, it did not change much. I think it's still this kind of value. I mean, we have still a lot more demand than supply.
Okay. Okay. Just thinking about the overall inventory levels and the supply chain issues, let's say, the change from sort of just in time inventory management to just in case. Is there, like, an increasing willingness from your customers to have a higher level of inventory, as they used to have? Yeah, what's your take on this when you talk with customers?
Yeah, I would say for the time being, we don't even discuss inventory with our customer. We discuss really about supplying the minimum, what they need to keep the line running. We are still not in discussion about inventory with the customer. In Melexis, the WIP is increasing. The Melexis WIP, which is also inventory, is increasing because we, like, want to be ready to deliver more in the next month. At the customer, the discussion is still, "Please supply the minimum in order to keep the line running.
All right. Okay, thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Janardan Menon from Jefferies. You're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on a strong set of results. I just want to understand the gross margin strength that you're seeing right now. Can you give us a split on how much is coming from price increases, how much from product mix, and how much from currency roughly? And in terms of the sustainability of this kind of gross margin, how do you see that? Would you expect the pricing trends that you're seeing currently in the market to continue into the second half, and more importantly, on a longer term basis?
Because previously you've always sort of said that, you know, you'll have to wait for quite a long time before you get back to the 45% gross margin, 25% EBIT margin range, but you've achieved it quite soon. How do we sort of expect. How should we model this, you know, on a longer term basis into 2023 and beyond? Is this a new level for Melexis because of changes in your mix and pricing levels? I've got a follow-up as well after that.
In general, in the current environment, it's extremely difficult to guide as much for sales as for the margin because the context is completely changed. In Q1, we had all elements in favor of us. Typically, the new prices start usually at the beginning of the year. That is today positively impacting. In the past, it was negatively impacting. The product mix is also helping. The dollar had also quite an important impact because on our inventory that is temporary. There is also operating leverage. All these elements account for a better gross margin. They are all more or less equally important. Moving ahead, of course, it's not guaranteed that we will keep all these elements in the same direction.
The dollar, also in Q2, is expected to have a positive impact. The product mix, yeah, we also believe that for the coming quarters it's rather gonna be in favor of us. The price increase, that is typically happening in the beginning of the year with not much change for the rest of the year, while we still can expect price increases on the supplier side throughout the year. That's why we need to look at this with caution. That's also what we mentioned in the press release. Moving forward, yeah, for the year, we guided around 45% at the midpoint of our guidance. Moving ahead, it's extremely difficult, also in moving beyond 2022. I mean, we live in an inflationary environment. How we will be able to, yeah, pass that on to customers moving beyond 2022 is extremely difficult to guide on today.
Understood. And just a quick follow-up on the TPMS product. I mean, you've had this product now for quite a few years, and you have not really talked about it as a big driver of volume until this quarter. I was just wondering, you know, given some of the regulation that happened on TPMS a few years ago, including in China, what is it that is driving the sales of this product so strongly at this point in time?
Yeah, we have indeed two big new business opportunity that are in ramp-up. They are in ramp-up since let's say late last year. Now we really see the effect of the volume. You are right, it's between quotes an old product, let's say, but we have been able to build two new business with this TPMS.
You're effectively taking market share on this product. Would that be a fair assumption?
You mentioned it, that there is also a change of regulation in the U.S. and in China, where now the TPMS is more mandatory, let's say. There is, I think, more higher margin and some market share effect, yes.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from the line of Matthias Meinhardt from Kepler Cheuvreux. You are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Two questions from my end, or maybe three. You clearly mentioned capacity upgrades allowing you to post significant quarter-over-quarter sales growth in Q2. Could you maybe give us somewhat of an idea on how further capacity lifts are scheduled throughout 2022 and 2023? If you have demand that is substantially high enough to even go above EUR 200 million of quarterly sales. That would be my first question. A second question would be on the guidance and the implied guidance on R&D, because it seems that the guidance seems to imply R&D at 13% of sales, while in Q1 you were pointing to 11% of sales.
I just was wondering, could you elaborate a little bit on which kind of costs are going to trigger such a substantial increase in R&D? Is that inflation on employee benefits? Is that hirings? Is that other kind of costs? Then, maybe a third question is on the order book. Could you maybe give us a feeling of how far your order book reaches out? What's the visibility you now have in 2023? Thank you.
Yeah, I can start and Karen you complement. If we start with the last question with the order book, yeah, I would say the order book is today as strong as one quarter ago. There is no real change in the order book. Yeah. With the comment that we made already last time that it's. There is long term order. I mean, it's in the order book, we don't have order only for 2022, but also for 2023. Also, because we have pushed out some order from 2022 to 2023. Because of the supply limitation. On the second question, about let's say the cost increase in development. I think you mentioned at least two of the three element. The wage inflation of the people will continue to take on.
Yeah, in Belgium, that will be 8%.
Yeah. It's something like that, indeed.
For the third quarter. Yeah.
We have also a hiring plan or a hiring budget in order to increase, let's say, the development bandwidth that we-
Yeah.
We develop this hiring plan, and we execute this hiring plan, sorry, in 2022 and probably also in 2023. The third element that you did not mention, but there is also, let's say, the effect of the problem in Ukraine, because we have, let's say, 10% of our development bandwidth is based in Ukraine. Yeah, in order to mitigate the effect, we are also to increase the cost in other country in order to compensate with some hiring, as an example.
While we keep paying our people in Ukraine.
Yeah, we keep paying the people in Ukraine. They are still contributing. I mean, they are working from home, or we have helped them to relocate outside Kyiv. Now they are located, let's say, mainly in the west part of the country, and they are still working from home. Again, you can imagine that the delivery, let's say, or deliverable is not the same in those circumstances than in normal circumstances. Meaning that we compensate, let's say, the output with some additional cost in other countries.
Also we expect supplier investments in R&D that will also step up over the next quarter. There are several elements here that contribute to the speed at which it will all happen, is still, yeah, difficult to guide on, but we are ramping up R&D.
Yes. The first question was about the outlook of the capacity in the supply chain. Yes, it's a difficult answer because as we mentioned, there are a lot of uncertainties. Our supplier have difficulties to increase their own capacity because they miss some equipment. The lead time of the equipment for our supplier is sometimes two years, and when they receive the equipment, sometimes the equipment is not complete, then they cannot use it. It's why it's quite difficult to guide on how the capacity will increase, mainly because of a timing perspective. I mean, the timing is unclear. I think the target of capacity increase is clear, but how it will be executed in the time is difficult because of all this uncertainty on the equipment delivery.
Yeah. Shorter term, we have been able to increase our inventories. Our guidance for Q2 is also quite up because indeed that is quite secure. Longer term, the effects of the Ukrainian war and also the major lockdowns in China, there is probably gonna be impacts on supply side, but we don't know yet today how much that will be. It is a risk in the longer term, more in the second half of the year.
That's the main reason why you actually guide for sequential weakening of sales in H2, if I understood correctly.
Yeah. The lower end indeed could mean, depending on supply, mainly the supply risks are indeed the dominant reason to do that.
Okay. Maybe have just one follow-up on the inflation and wage inflation. I noticed you had quite an important financial income, which seems to be an inflation hedge. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit on how we should model this going forward? Because the EUR 9 million of financial income seems quite substantial.
Yeah. It's ad hoc, so it's indeed hedging contracts. Normally it's zero. I mean, the guidance should be zero, but yeah, ad hoc it can, there can be extreme differences, but it's impossible to guide on this. In principle, financial results should be around zero moving forward.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Marc Hesselink from ING. You're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. First question on the growth guidance. Can you split it up maybe between what you're seeing and expecting in automotive and adjacencies? Also asking in automotive, clearly very strong demand, but you also see that the production plans of the OEMs are expected to be lower than at the start of the year. Can you maybe talk about all the moving parts? The volumes, the content increases that you see at the automotive and the split between automotive and adjacencies.
Yeah. For the split between adjacent and automotive, indeed, you realize that in percentage, the adjacents stay constant around 10%, and the automotive is increasing quicker, let's say, than the adjacent. I think, yeah, given the, let's say, the automotive situation for the next month, it will remain the same. I think we will continue to grow quicker the automotive than the adjacent, at least in short term, because we need to allocate the majority of the capacity for our automotive customer. In terms of, let's say volume, from the OEM, I confirm that indeed, looking at the IHS figures, let's say every month the prediction is going a bit down.
I think now we are close to 80 or 81 million cars for 2022, which is indeed lower than at the beginning of the year. For Melexis, what drives, let's say, the revenue is more the content. We move from 13, on average 13, Melexis IC per car in 2010 to 18 in 2000. Sorry, 13 in 2020, moving to 18 in 2021. The content keeps increasing for the chip content. Coming back on the IHS and they believe 80 or 81 million for 2022, but they are still convinced that 2023 we will see a significant increase.
Okay. Second question is on the extra capacity that you have in the supply chain. To understand it, how did you get that extra capacity? Was your supplier able to debottleneck some parts, or was there another client that pushed out a little bit of demand? How was that possible?
You know that our main wafer fab supplier is X-FAB. X-FAB is now ramping up a new site in Corbeil-Essonnes in the south of France. Let's say the capacity in Corbeil-Essonnes is increasing step by step. As I mentioned before, it's sometimes impacted because they cannot get the equipment that they have ordered or the equipment is delivered with huge delay. It's why from a timing perspective, it's always a bit difficult to make some plan. For sure, what is sure is the extra capacity is coming from the Corbeil-Essonnes side of X-FAB.
Are you prioritized over other clients or is everybody gets a bit extra?
Yeah, this is a question that you should ask to X-FAB.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Fair. Maybe then the final question is actually on for your guidance, you take into account the U.S. dollar/euro of 1.09. Well, actually today it's already at 1.06, which I suppose is going to be extra beneficial, then again if it stays where it is. Maybe firstly, why did you think this still be 1.09?
Pardon? What?
I said the U.S. dollar/euro exchange rate, you take into account for the full- year at 1.09, while it's-
Yeah.
Today it's at 1.06.
Yeah.
I suppose, I mean, it's gonna be. If I'm right, it's gonna be beneficial on your.
Yeah, yeah.
Top line and your margin.
Yeah. Indeed. As much on sales as on, well, the margin temporarily because of the inventory impact. Longer term, it as a percentage will not be influenced a lot.
Is there like this extra like maybe like almost 2%-3%, what would you how would it fall down to your revenues and your margin then?
On the margin, the dollar longer term has no impact. Only short-term because of inventory revaluation. Obviously on the sales it has an impact, but today it is 1.0. I mean, it can fluctuate. It's I mean, we guide for 1.09. Now it is maybe a bit stronger, but yeah, it fluctuates-
Okay.
From time.
Okay. Clear. Thank you.
Yeah, we always look back at the average of the past. We always have a bit-
Okay.
Of a delayed effect.
Okay, thanks.
Our next question comes from the line of Robert Sanders from Deutsche Bank. You're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. My first question's on your 2022 revenue growth. I just want to understand, is pricing the biggest majority contributor to that growth? The reason I ask is that's what Elmos is saying, for example. I just wanted to check whether pricing is the majority of that growth in 2022 or if it's a minority. I have a couple of follow-ups. Thanks.
It's an important aspect, but it's by far not the only one.
Okay. On China, what we're seeing is some of the domestic suppliers are taking share in power analog and some ADAS areas. I was just wondering, in magnetic sensors, current sensors, these areas where you play, have you seen any domestic suppliers take any share within the Chinese market or has that not yet happened?
I would say for automotive. We did not see yet market share taken by the Chinese supplier, but I think we really need to pay attention because they are also learning. It's why we need to continue to innovate and to bring some additional features, some added value for the OEM. Because, indeed, we cannot neglect that there is some Chinese supplier that are also in the place. It's also the reason why we spend more R&D effort because it's via those R&D that we can innovate and that we can stay in front of the pack in terms of technology innovation.
Got it. My last question, you mentioned your exposure in Ukraine. That's about what? 100 engineers or so, is that right? Related to Bulgaria, you know that Russia seems to have cut off Bulgaria from natural gas. I was just wondering if that would be a kind of minor exposure given that's mostly people or is there a potential impact in Bulgaria as well? Thanks.
Well, this is very new, but in the past, we also had a cut. It's not the first time that Russia, I think 2008 or 2009 or so, it also happened. It didn't have impact on the Melexis business then.
Got it.
We don't expect it to have major impact today neither.
Got it. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of François Bouvignies from UBS. You're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I have a couple. The first one. I'm sorry I joined a bit later, the call if you answered already. The capacity that you see higher than you expected coming in the second quarter. Is it only from X-FAB or are you using other kind of suppliers expanding on the foundry side? That's the first clarification.
Yeah, it's only coming from X-FAB.
Okay. That's perfect, clear. The second one is on the. I mean, I understa-
Hello? The sound has disappeared.
Yeah. Can you hear me now? Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
Sorry. Yeah. Sorry about that. No, I was saying that you talk about the content being a big driver of your performance. Nevertheless, I mean, when you look at the production of cars, you know, worldwide and, you know, the top five European countries, which is a big part of your market, I mean, it's coming down, you know, global production, like double-digit percentage, and China is not looking much better in terms of production in the first quarter. Nevertheless, I mean, you delivered like 18% growth year-over-year this quarter, and looking at your guidance, it's still fairly strong. My question is like the content in your medium-term target, and even if you look historically, it's rarely above 10% as such, you know what I mean?
We are looking at a very significant spread between production and what you are delivering. Can you break down maybe the explanation of this or maybe give some color? Constraint is one of them, but, you know, the magnitude seems quite, you know, huge. If you see what I mean? Just want to understand such gap of numbers.
Maybe just in general, I mean, there is impact of inflation, there is impact of dollar. The volume growth, we are talking rather of high single digit growth. That is higher than production, car production, but it's also not substantially higher. We need to look at it in that context as well. It's more in line with growth levels as we saw in the past, volume growth levels.
Sorry, what did you say, Karen? I didn't catch it. You expect high single digits for what? The dollar? I didn't get it.
The volume growth.
My bad.
We are in an inflationary environment.
Yeah.
Part of the growth is pure, inflationary. The volume growth is-
You mean pricing? You mean in pricing?
Pricing, indeed. To compensate.
Yes.
Supplier increases.
Okay. Can you quantify this pricing impact? High single digits, you said? That's what you meant?
Well, we have been open about it in the past as well. It's higher single digits indeed.
Okay. All right. Maybe on the currency side, for the full- year with 45% gross margin, how much is currency impacting your gross margin for the full- year?
It's around 4% in the guidance. It was 3% in Q1. For the full- year, you need to correct with around 4% for dollar impact.
It would be 41% at constant currency. Is that correct?
In the sales growth guidance. In GPM, it's
I'm talking about gross margin here.
Oh, sorry. I misunderstood.
Gross margin. Yeah.
No. In gross margin, it's. Well, there is maybe temporarily a smaller effect, but for the moment, it's not big yet. It's not big. The 45% that we gave as guidance for the year does not include a lot of dollar impact.
Okay. You said that just before, I think that currency was a big impact on the gross margin strength.
In Q1, there is some impact, yeah.
Oh, I misunderstood.
In the full- year's guidance.
Yeah.
We don't expect that to be in the 45%. It's not. I mean, it's difficult to guide on that because we don't know yet. Like I mentioned, long term, there is zero effect. It's only a temporary effect from the revaluation of the inventory, which phases out once you have a stable dollar environment again.
Okay. What is impacting Q1 then?
Maximum 1%.
The gross margin.
It's not even 1%, I would say.
Less than 1%. Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Michael Roeg from Degroof Petercam. You're now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Perfect. First question I have is on X-FAB. How many months of visibility do you have in terms of wafer supply?
We have asked this question to our different supplier. I don't know if you refer really to the wafer or to the gas that is used for the process. Anyway, they have enough to cover the next 10 months or something like that.
Okay. Well, what I wanted to mean is your supply to you is better than expected for Q2, which gives you the nice guidance of EUR 200 million. Beyond that, you expect some cautiousness because your full- year guidance at the midpoint suggests that it will be slightly lower than EUR 200 million in Q3 or Q4. You know, based on their production ramping up, their growth in Corbeil-Essonnes, I would have assumed that from the EUR 200 million in Q2, there may be a small step up in your sales in Q3 and Q4, but you guide for a slight decrease. That's why I ask, you know, what's your visibility on the wafers that you're getting from X-FAB? How long is that visibility?
Yeah. As we mentioned, there are a lot of uncertainties on different aspects of the supply chain. Okay. X-FAB is one of the aspects. Perhaps we are a bit cautious, but we want to be cautious because if one bottleneck appears in the supply chain, then everything is impacted. Given all the uncertainty that we mentioned in the past, I think we want to be cautious.
Okay. Understandable. About a potential bottleneck. China and Hong Kong combined were about 22% of your sales last year. Have you noticed anything from lockdowns which may be, you know, causing some disruptions in your supply to those customers?
Yeah. What is very noticeable is that indeed we have this. I mean, our carriers have difficulties, let's say, to bring our goods to China, and some of them even to do this. Some of them accept, but they don't want to take any risk if the goods are lost, then this is a very concrete consequence, let's say. Okay. We know also that harbors in Shanghai are closed or almost closed, for sure. For the time being, some of our materials are not shipped to China, and we keep to be able to ship them in a second step.
This could perhaps be reason for your cautiousness in Q3 and Q4, because if your clients accept a product today but cannot use it in their factories, then they will use it in Q3 and push out some of their normal orders for the remainder of the year. Something like that.
For sure that the lockdown in China is closed. Yes.
Okay. That's clear. A question for Karen on the gross margin. If I look at X-FAB, your main supplier, then every quarter there's a strange inventory effect in the gross profit. If the company produces more than they supplied, and there will be something capitalized, and that has a positive impact on the gross profit, and the other way around, it has a negative and so on. Is this something that also happens at Melexis? If you have more work in progress in your testing facilities than the quarter ago that you capitalize some inventories and that there's a positive impact on your gross profit.
We have this from the dollar movement, but I cannot comment.
Okay.
On anything else.
Okay. It's only a currency effect at Melexis, not absolute inventory volume impact.
If we test more, then obviously this is also impacting our inventory. Yeah. That's typical. Higher inventory has a positive impact on the gross margin.
Okay.
It's not so. Such potential for Melexis.
Okay. Clear. That's reassuring.
Yeah. For Melexis, there is a big difference. We only have our production is only 20%-30% of the total gross margin, where in X-FAB it's almost 100% of their gross margin.
That's why at X-FAB the gross margin always goes in all directions, and it makes no sense 'cause you have to adjust for the inventory effect. At Melexis it's much smaller. That's clear. That's reassuring. Means the 45% is actually quite a good margin. Again, for Karen, you elaborated quite on the step up in R&D efforts. I looked in my model, it was about EUR 20 million a quarter for 17 quarters in a row, so now it will become higher. What is roughly the ballpark number that we should think of on a quarterly basis, EUR 23 million or EUR 24 million?
What do you mean EUR 23 million?
No, no. The absolute R&D spend per quarter. It was about EUR 20 million a quarter.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
For a long time.
Mm-hmm.
Now it's going up, inflation, extra people.
Mm-hmm.
Ukraine situation. What is the ballpark number going forward? EUR 23 million or EUR 24 million?
It is very difficult to guide on that, but indeed there can be substantial increases from quarter to quarter. Yeah.
Okay. The final one, more a technicality. Those strange hedging results in your net financial results, is that part of your dividend base? 'Cause if it would be EUR 40 million. You know. That's quite a big impact.
Well, cash flow in general is high, yeah, because investments are not much higher than depreciation today. We're not, we're not counting on that. Plus the financial. I mean, our dividend policy is based on the real cash flows. The financial result is unrealized, so it can still go in all directions.
Okay. Clear. No impact. That's it. Thank you.
Thank you.
We currently have one final question. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one. Our next question comes from the line of Varun Rajwanshi from JP Morgan. You are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Hey, morning, Marc and Karen. Very short follow-up from my side. Actually, a clarification on an earlier answer. You've increased your gross margin guidance for the full- year to 45% from 42%. Can you just break it down into different components? How much of this increase is driven by pricing? How much is driven by product mix? You mentioned that the impact of the U.S. dollar move is not very significant. Just those two components, you know, some color on that will be helpful. One question for you, Marc, on competitive intensity. Have you seen any change in recent months? Can you comment on your share in magnetic sensors and, you know, potential threats that you see from competing technology such as XMR, you know, versus Hall effect? Thank you.
First, on the gross margin, like we mentioned already, there are four elements, and they both have an important impact. The operating leverage, the pricing, the U.S. dollar effect, but that is temporary. Then the product mix, on the other hand, is also one. We don't wanna. I mean, they're all important in this increase.
Can you quantify this, Karen? Because that would be helpful.
There is not one that is more than 1%.
Sorry, no factor is more than 1%.
Is more than 1%.
Okay.
Yes. On the competitive aspect, yeah, I must say that the current shortage, let's say, and the hungriness for pieces hide a bit the competition aspect. The competition is more on who can supply instead of, yeah, any other component, let's say. Really for the time being, the competition is really on who can supply. To come back on the XMR, your XMR question, which is, I mean, the MR is indeed a way to have much more sensitivity. It has also other disadvantage, let's say. I really believe that the Hall sensor is the best compromise between the cost and the performance. It's why.
I mean, in some specific application, you really need more sensitivity, and the MR is one of the solutions. But for the vast majority of the application, I think the compromise between cost and performance is always at the advantage of the Hall technology. That being said, coming back on the R&D investment, we are also working in the longer term or in the midterm on solution to have more sensitivity, not with the MR because, yeah, competition is using MR, and we want to provide a different feature with a different performance. We are also working for the future on the solution where we can bring more sensitivity.
Thanks for your comment, Marc.
Did I answer the question?
You did. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
We currently have no final questions, so I'll hand over to your hosts for any final remarks.
Okay. Thank you for the discussion. Thank you for the interesting question. I hope you have appreciated the discussion, and I think we are all looking forward to meet you again in three months for the earnings call after Q2. Again, thank you for the discussion.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.