By Federica Mileo

(Reuters) -Dutch navigation and digital mapping company TomTom raised its 2023 revenue forecast on Friday, after posting better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue driven by strong automotive performance.

After being hit by the global chip shortage that has disrupted the automotive and electronics industries, TomTom is now starting to benefit from the recovery in global car production.

“Increased car production volumes and a further ramp up of some contracts led Automotive to generate revenues of 77 million euros in the quarter, an increase of 64% compared with the same quarter last year,” Chief Finance Officer Taco Titulaer said in a statement.

The Amsterdam-based firm, whose customers include Volkswagen and Microsoft, forecast revenue for the current fiscal year in a range of 540 million euros to 580 million euros ($588.33 million-$631.91 million), with free cash flow of between 0% and +5% of the revenue.

The group had previously guided for a revenue of 500-550 million euros, with 425-475 million euros generated from its core location technology business, and free cash flow at breakeven.

The company posted revenue of 139 million euros for the quarter ended Dec.31, beating company-compiled analysts’ average forecast of 120 million euros.

($1 = 0.9179 euros)

(Reporting by Federica Mileo in Gdansk; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Rashmi Aich)