The shortage of chips hit the volume brands VW, Skoda and Seat in particular.
(Photo: dpa)
Hamburg Volkswagen’s profit fell more sharply than expected due to the chip misery. The operating result before special items fell in the third quarter, which was particularly hard hit by the lack of electronic components, by twelve percent to around 2.8 billion euros. According to data from Refinitiv, analysts had expected a smaller decline. Because of the supply bottlenecks and delivery failures for semiconductors, the group also has to cut back on deliveries: These would only be at the level of the previous year, Volkswagen announced on Thursday. So far, deliveries were expected to be noticeably higher than the previous year’s level.
The Wolfsburg-based company nevertheless reaffirmed the profit forecast for 2021, which was raised after the record profit in the middle of the year. Accordingly, both before and after special items, the group expects a return of between six and 7.5 percent and consolidated sales well above the previous year.
CEO Herbert Diess called for the transformation to climate-neutral, digital mobility not to slacken: “The results of the third quarter show once again that we now have to consistently push ahead with improving productivity in the volume sector. We are determined to maintain our strong position against established and new competitors. ”CFO Arno Antlitz added that the semiconductor bottleneck clearly demonstrated in the third quarter that Volkswagen is not yet able to withstand fluctuations in capacity utilization.
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