Continental: The automotive industry is suffering
The automotive industry is suffering massively from the corona crisis. The suppliers are also feeling this. For Continental ; the first half of the year ended with a three-digit million loss.The automotive supplier Continental posted deep red numbers in the second quarter in view of the corona crisis. The loss before taxes and interest adjusted for special effects (EBIT) was around 636 million euros ; as the company in Hanover announced on the basis of preliminary figures.A year ago, Continental had earned 868 million euros on this basis. After six months ; the operating loss was a good EUR 200 million. From April to June ; consolidated sales fell almost 40 percent to 6.62 billion euros on a comparable basis due to the production breaks at car manufacturers.In the first quarter it was already 11 percent below the previous year. Conti still has no confidence in forecasting the year as a whole: "Although Continental's business performance improved significantly in the course of the second quarter ; the economic environment is still characterized by great uncertainty due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore ; it remains difficult to estimate the extent of the adverse effects on production ; supply chain and demand " ; the group justified the hesitation.
Grants in the billions
At Conti ; 1.78 billion euros in funds (free cash flow) flowed out within three months. Nevertheless, the group sees itself on a solid financial footing: At the end of June Conti had a liquidity cushion of 10.1 billion euros, 3.3 billion more than at the end of March. The auto supplier had expanded its credit lines by three billion euros and placed three bonds totaling 2.1 billion euros. The worst part of the business was as a car supplier: Here, sales slumped by 46 percent in the second quarter and the operating loss totaled around EUR 463 million.The transmission division, the spin-off of which has postponed Continental, delivered a 41 percent drop in sales and a loss before taxes and interest of 184 million euros. In contrast, the tire business was in the black with around 36 million euros. The decline in sales was limited to a third.
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