Robert Bosch is on the verge of overtaking Delphi to become the world’s largest automotive supplier, according to analysis by supplier industry researcher SupplierBusiness.com.
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Based on current exchange rates Bosch will slip past Delphi in sales revenue for 2003 – especially if the US dollar continues to weaken, said SupplierBusiness.com analyst Colin Whitbread.
Delphi overtook Bosch as the world’s No. 1 supplier in 1999 when General Motors’ former components division was spun off as an independent company. Delphi expects sales of just over $US7 billion in the fourth quarter, which will give it full year revenue of $27.85 billion. That compares with sales of $27.43 billion in 2002, of which $556 million reflected non-automotive operations. Delphi will finish 2003 with an estimated $27.25 billion in automotive sales.
Bosch’s automotive sales totalled €23.35 billion in 2002. The German company got a small boost this year from the acquisition of Buderus, a leading producer of castings for disc brakes and special steel. Buderus has annual sales of about €300 million to the automotive industry.
But only part of that will be consolidated in 2003, said Whitbread, and it will probably be offset by the disposals of Bosch’s locks business, Blaupunkt’s plastic moulding operation and air filter operations.
Bosch CEO Franz Fehrenbach has said that in real terms the company’s automotive sales were up by 6% in the first eight months of 2003, but adjusting for currency effects sales were flat.
The dollar had fallen by 6.7% and the yen by 5.6% against the euro in the first eight months of the year, reducing the euro value of sales in those currencies. If Bosch’s automotive sales remain unchanged (in euros) this year then based on September’s exchange rates ($1.12 to the euro) they would total $26.2 billion in 2003, just one billion behind Delphi, according to the SupplierBusiness.com analysis.
But since September the dollar has weakened further. The dollar had fallen to almost $1.20 to the euro at the end of November. That would put Bosch at just under $28 billion in automotive sales, inching ahead of Delphi.
Both companies report full year sales in late January. The race will swing on the exchange rate, said Whitbread.
