To get out of the crisis struggles the greatest automotive of Germany and Europe, the Volkswagen.
Following a slight improvement in sales data, the Wolfsburg -based automotive industry (Volkswagen) is forced to report a decrease in its earnings for the first half of the year for the third consecutive year.
As announced by the company listed on DAX on Friday morning, despite steady sales, after -tax profits decreased by more than 38% to 4.47 billion euros. Volkswagen’s EBIT margin decreased to 4.2% – only during the year 2020, the Wolfsburg -based company has reported a lower margin in the last ten years.
The main negative factors were the increased US import duties (minus 1.3 billion euros), forecasts for restructuring (0.7 billion euros) and costs associated with CO₂ Regulations. To this were added the negative effects of the mixture – such as the increased share of fully electric vehicles – as well as the impacts on prices and exchange rates. Without these special implications, the operating margin would be 5.6%, according to the company.
Highest import duties from the US
Due to these developments, the Group revised its forecasts for the whole year. Sales revenue is now expected to be stood at the level of last year – previously planned up to five percent increased. Sales functional performance is expected to be between four and five percent. Volkswagen had previously predicted a range of 5.5 to 6.5 percent. For the first time, VW also takes into account recently increased US import duties to its annual goals.
VW had already launched the year weak, reporting operating profits of just 2.9 billion euros in the first quarter – also one of the weakest elements of this decade.
In the medium term, Blume aims to achieve a ten -percent operating performance with the DAX listed group. However, both the basic VW brand and the Porsche have recently postponed their performance goals. The Group’s profit goals are therefore increasingly out of sync.