Autoliv has reported third-quarter consolidated sales growth of 4.1% to US$2.03bn, while quarterly organic sales grew by 6.4%.
Airbags sales rose organically by 8% and seatbelts sales by 3%. Both the reported and adjusted operating margin was 9.5%.
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For the full year 2018, the indication is for organic sales to increase by around 6% and the adjusted operating margin to be around 10.5%.
“Our growth momentum continued in the third quarter,” said Autoliv president and CEO, Mikael Bratt.
“Driven mainly by a large number of product launches in North America, our sales grew organically by more than 6% despite the decrease in light vehicle production of about 2% according to IHS. We were able to grow faster than light vehicle production in all regions except Rest of Asia, with North America as the main driver with 22% organic sales growth.
“The launches are on schedule, with good delivery precision albeit with continued elevated launch related costs, temporarily impacting our profitability progression negatively.
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“I am pleased our order intake continued on a high level in the quarter, supporting our growth opportunities for the longer term. Our operating cash flow was solid in the quarter, supporting our full year indication of an operating cash flow for Continuing Operations to be on a similar level as last year.
“In the third quarter our industry experienced significant changes in light vehicle production, especially in Europe impacted by WLTP, and in China due to lower consumer demand. As a result, our supply chain, production and logistic systems had to manage significant and late changes to OEM production plans with corresponding uneven utilisation of our supply chain, production and logistics assets while at the same time focussing on the many launches and high growth in North America.
“We see a similar environment for the rest of the year, with continued uncertainty for light vehicle production, especially in China and Europe, with continued uneven asset utilisation. We are implementing actions to manage these challenges and we look forward to a gradual improvement in operating leverage over time.”
