Automotive division helps Continental sales grow 3% in 2016

Germany-based technology company Continental today reported a sales increase of 3 percent year-on-year (YoY) to around €40.5 billion and an adjusted EBIT margin of around 10.7 percent. The company achieved its annual targets as adjusted in October 2016.

“In spite of several isolated circumstances that had a negative impact on earnings in the past fiscal year, net income slightly exceeded the previous year’s level,” said Continental in an official statement.

As expected, the fourth quarter of the past fiscal year saw strong sales and earnings. This was attributable partly to the growth of the Automotive group as well as to winter tire business, which exceeded the strong sales volume of the same period of the previous year.

While presenting the preliminary key data during the Detroit Motor Show, Dr Elmar Degenhart, executive board chairman of Continental said, “We continued our growth once again in 2016. In the Rubber Group, we sold a record 150 million tires. Despite persistently weak demand in the oil and mining business, ContiTech’s EBIT margin almost reached the double-digit level at the end of the year, thus significantly exceeding the previous year’s figure. In the Automotive Group, we increased incoming orders by 10 percent to more than €33 billion in 2016. In addition to orders for advanced driver assistance products, which rose to more than €3 billion; orders for products and systems for hybrid and electric vehicles climbed by 17 percent to €1.2 billion as well.”

“For 2017, we are anticipating an increase in sales of over 6 percent to more than €43 billion. Our target is to comfortably achieve an adjusted EBIT margin of more than 10.5 percent. In this context, we are anticipating a slight increase in global production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with a total weight of up to six metric tonnes of 1 percent from 92 million vehicles to around 93 million,” added Degenhart.

In 2016, the Continental corporation generated sales of around €40.5 billion with its five divisions, Chassis & Safety, Interior, Powertrain, Tire, and ContiTech. Continental currently employs more than 220,000 people in 55 countries.

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