Geely's Volvo Cars has reported record revenue for the first six months of 2019 of SEK130.1bn, up from SEK122.9bn a year ago.

This followed the best first half year sales results in the automaker's history – 340,286 cars, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.

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The automaker said unit volume "grew consistently faster than the overall market".

Volvo gained market share in the US, China and Europe with the UK and Germany seeing growth of 30% and 32% respectively. The passenger car market in the US declined 2% in the first half while China and Europe fell by 9.3% and 3.1% respectively.

Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive, told a results press conference on 18 July the company had prioritised growth and market share during the first half, capitalising on the building momentum generated by a new range of award-winning models.

"At a time when most markets in the world see stagnating car sales, we have had strong growth in the first half," Samuelsson said.

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"We continue to take market share in all regions where we operate but increased pricing pressure and tariffs have decreased our operating profit. The cost measures we took earlier this year will come into effect in the second half of the year."

H1 2019 operating profit was SEK5.5bn, compared with SEK7.8bn last year.

Operating margin fell to 4.2% from 6.4% and was 3.9% in Q2.

Additional cost measures are planned, targeting lowering fixed costs by SEK2bn. This will come into effect this second half, running into the first half of 2020.

For the rest of 2019, Volvo Cars expects continued growth in sales and revenue, boosted by continued strong demand and increased production capacity (the new US assembly plant being the main booster).

"Market conditions are expected to put continued pressure on margins but the combination of volume growth and cost measures is expected to result in a stRengthened profit in the second half of the year compared with the same period last year," Volvo said.