The company lowered its sales forecast for the full year due to production downtimes in the auto industry.
(Photo: imago images / isslerimages)
Munich The chip crisis is troubling the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler. In the third quarter, sales fell by three percent due to currency effects, as the company announced on Tuesday. The reason is that customers have called off significantly fewer parts.
In addition, Schaeffler is increasingly feeling the effects of the higher raw material prices, which are putting pressure on earnings. “After a strong first half of the year, the Schaeffler Group was unable to escape the sharp decline in growth in global automobile production in the third quarter,” said Schaeffler boss Klaus Rosenfeld.
The company lowered its sales forecast for the full year due to production downtimes in the auto industry. An increase of more than seven percent is now expected; at the end of July, Schaeffler had predicted an increase of more than eleven percent. CFO Claus Bauer said the company would adhere to strict cost and capital discipline and examine additional measures to meet the increasing challenges in the fourth quarter, especially on the material price side.
In the first nine months, Schaeffler generated sales of 10.3 billion euros, which corresponds to a currency-adjusted increase of 15.9 percent. The operating profit before special items improved to 994 million euros from 376 million euros.
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Continental, in which the Schaeffler family also has a significant stake, lowered its forecast for the full year a few days ago after a drop in sales in the third quarter. As a justification, the group referred to “ongoing bottlenecks in semiconductor components”, the uncertainties in the supply chain and the cost increases for raw materials and parts.
Mixed perspectives
Vitesco boss Andreas Wolf had recently warned of a significant revenue burden on the business. The drive specialist was spun off from Schaeffler’s sister company Continental and has been listed on the stock exchange since September.
The perspectives are also mixed. Because other components and materials are also in short supply. “We are already hearing from the first suppliers and upstream suppliers that their aluminum stocks are currently shrinking rapidly,” says Lars-Peter Häfele, raw materials expert at the consulting firm Inverto, which specializes in supply chains.
The situation is particularly difficult for the smaller companies. “In particular, the smaller suppliers with annual sales of 50 to 200 million euros are tipping over”, recently warned Rolf Hünermann, who, as a partner in the law firm Reed Smith LLP, represents numerous medium-sized companies in need.
Schaeffler is in a better position here thanks to its broad line-up. The Herzogenaurach-based company is currently benefiting from its broad positioning. The demand for products for electromobility is high, and industrial businesses are also doing well overall.
Rosenfeld also strives to open up new fields of the future. Schaeffler recently entered into a partnership with the Israeli tech company Mobileye. Together, the two companies want to offer the substructure for robotic taxis.
The Schaeffler share has not used any of this in the past few months. Since the middle of the year, the rate has fallen from eight to a good seven euros.
With agency material
More: The chip crisis is followed by an even greater problem with the lack of aluminum