French automotive parts maker Faurecia posted a 3.7% slide in third-quarter sales on Wednesday due to the impact of a strong euro and a fall in sales of catalytic converters, Reuters reported.
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Faurecia, 71.5% owned by PSA Peugeot Citroen, reportedly said sales in the three months to the end of September fell 3.7% to $US2.63 billion.
Reuters said Europe’s third biggest automotive parts supplier by sales confirmed it expected European car production to slow by 5-7% in the second half of the year.
The news agency said Faurecia gave no details on financial targets, but it has said it aims to outperform the lacklustre European market this year and to boost its operating margin quarter on quarter as it reins in costs.
Sales of Faurecia’s popular car seats rose 3.1% and front-end sales jumped 21% due to the start of deliveries for the BMW 3 Series, Reuters said, but sales of vehicle interior parts excluding seats fell 9.4% and exhaust system sales plunged 16.7%, mainly due to a slide in demand for catalytic converters.
Faurecia told Reuters it took a 1.7% hit from negative exchange rates and that the partial sale of its cockpit business in Belgium also had a negative impact of 1.7%.
Turnover in the first nine months of the year climbed 2.7% to 7.471 billion euros, the company told the news agency.
