Autoliv has posted third-quarter net sales fractionally down 0.3% to US$2.028bn, with profitability still impacted by global LVP decline and high raw material costs.
“We experienced continued challenging market conditions in the quarter,” said Autoliv president & CEO, Mikael Bratt. “Although the rate of decline in light vehicle production slowed down slightly, uncertainty remains high, market outlook by IHS continues to be revised down and we do not see a turnaround in LVP in the near term.
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“We continued to outperform light vehicle production, growing organically about 4.6pp more than LVP in the third quarter, driven mainly by strong development in China and Americas.
“Our business cycle management actions are taking effect and the adjusted operating margin decline year over year was substantially less than in recent quarters and it improved sequentially. LVP has continued to slide however, and we now assume 6-7% global LVP decline for 2019, which moderates our outlook to around 1% for organic sales growth and to around 9% for adjusted operating margin.
“Although I am not pleased with this profit level, we achieved it in the context of LVP expectations declining by 7-8pp in just 9 months. The cost improvement actions which enabled this performance will continue relentlessly.”
