Visteon Corporation on Thursday (30 October) announced a higher third quarter net loss of $188m, or $1.45 per share, on total sales of $2.11bn.
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This compared with the net loss of $109m, or $0.84 per share, on sales of $2.55bn in the third quarter of 2007.
Q3 2008 product sales fell $400m year on year, reflecting lower customer production volumes and plant closures and divestitures.
EBIT-R was negative $97m, compared with negative $33m in Q3 2007.
“Visteon has taken aggressive actions designed to reduce spending and control costs, and we have addressed 28 of the 30 original planned facilities under our three-year plan,” said president and chief executive officer Donald Stebbins.
“However, extremely difficult market conditions continue to impact the automotive industry, particularly in North America. With the current state of the credit markets and related consumer concerns, we are also seeing slowing production volumes in both western Europe and the Asia Pacific region. As a result, we will continue to aggressively align our resources with market demand.”
Visteon said it posted lower sales across all regions in with the largest in North America, where Ford production was lower by about 30% and Nissan truck production was off over 60%.
Product gross margin for third quarter 2008 was $42m, compared with $97m a year earlier. Favourable net cost performance, including restructuring savings, was more than offset by the impact of lower product sales.
For the first nine months of 2008, sales from continuing operations were $7.88bn, including $7.53bn of product sales. Product sales decreased $471m from the first nine months of 2007.
Product gross margin for the first nine months of 2008 was $466m, increasing $100m from the same period a year ago.
Visteon reported a net loss of $335m or $2.59 per share for the first nine months of 2008, compared with a net loss of $329m, or $2.54 per share, a year ago.
Outlook
The supplier has reduced its full-year 2008 product sales outlook from $10.0bn to $9.4bn, reflecting lower production volumes in both North America and Europe for its key customers, as well as the impact of a strengthening US dollar.
Full-year 2008 EBIT-R is now expected to be approximately $(25)m.
“We expect the fourth quarter to continue to be pressured as the difficulties in the global financial markets have impacted consumer demand for vehicles and led to significantly lower OEM production volumes,” Stebbins said.
“Given the continued uncertainty surrounding the global production environment, the company is no longer providing financial guidance for 2009.”
