At Schaeffler, Pessimism Is Growing

Industrial supplier Schaeffler looks more pessimistic on the business of the current year and lowers its forecast, because several major customers order less. Schaeffler expects global car production to drop by four percent.

Automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler looks more pessimistic on the year 2019. Given the weakness of global automobile production of the SDax Group lower the forecast for sales and profit, said Schaeffler in Herzogenaurach. The reason was also a "decline in demand from individual major customers" called.

"Environment with high risks"

The company now expects global automobile production to decline by 4 percent. On February 19, it had expected a decline of 1 percent. "The environment continues to entail high risks for the remainder of the year," said CEO Klaus Rosenfeld.

For 2019, Schaeffler now expects currency-adjusted sales growth of between minus 1 and plus 1 percent after previously plus 1 to plus 3 percent. The margin on operating profit (EBIT) before special effects should only be in the range of plus 7 to plus 8 percent, previously Schaeffler had expected 8 to 9 percent plus. The margin indicates how much of the revenue remains as operating profit.