Ulteriori anticipazioni circa il primo trimestre da Volkswagen e da Peugeot.
La prima indica un calo delle vendite auto del 15,7%, del fatturato dell'11,2% e della produzione del 24%. Il trimestre si è chiuso in nero per effetto dei proventi generati dalla vendita di attività in Brasile.
Peugeot indica un calo del fatturato nell'ordine del 25% (crollano le vendite in paesi dove non sono stati varati incentivi, quali Spagna o UK, crescono o tengono dove invece gli incentivi ci sono). Nel 2009, si attende un calo complessivo del mercato auto pari al 25%.
La produzione è stata tagliata del 39%, così da poter ridurre le giacenze di auto invendute del 21% rispetto ad un anno fa.
Volkswagen, Peugeot hit by sharp drop in demand
Volatile markets leave outlook unclear, Peugeot still forecasting 2009 loss
By
Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:38 a.m. EDT April 22, 2009
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Volkswagen and Peugeot, Europe's two biggest car makers by volume, both reported sharp falls in vehicle sales and production Wednesday as they battled against tumbling global demand.
The pair also said it was hard to give accurate predictions for the rest of 2009 due to high volatility, though Peugeot said it continues to expect an overall loss for the year.
Volkswagen said net profit for the first quarter dropped 74% to 243 million euros ($314 million) from 929 million euros and operating profit fell 76% to 312 million euros.
It had previously forecast a loss for the quarter, but the sale of a Brazilian business added around 600 million euros to the operating profit. The German group said vehicle sales fell 15.7% to 1.35 million units and revenue fell 11.2% to 24 billion euros. The decline in production was even bigger at around 24%.
"Although we assume that the Volkswagen Group will be unable to escape the downward trend, we believe that it will perform better than the market as a whole and will be able to gain additional market share," Volkswagen said.
It added it can't make any reliable profit forecast for the rest of the year, other than that earnings will not reach the levels of previous years.
Shares in the group edged up 1% in Frankfurt after the announcement.
Peugeot shares, meanwhile, dropped around 1% after its sales figures missed expectations. The stock has dropped over 60% in the last 12 months as the global economic slowdown has caused demand for new cars to slump.
The group said sales fell 25% to 10.97 billion euros from 14.62 billion euros a year earlier. Analysts had on average been forecasting sales of around 11.5 billion euros for the quarter.
The group, which didn't provide profit figures for the latest quarter, said government incentive programs that pay customers for scrapping old cars have had a beneficial impact, especially in Germany where demand rose 15%.
But sales in other countries without an incentive program have slumped, with overall demand in the U.K. down 32% and Spain collapsing 44%. Peugeot said it therefore still expects the overall European car market to shrink by 20% in 2009.
To cope with the sharp downturn in the market, Peugeot said it's focusing on shrinking its inventory of unsold cars. Production levels were slashed by 39% in the first quarter, which helped the car maker reduce inventories by around 21% compared to a year earlier.
New payment terms to suppliers have also hurt free cash flow during the quarter, though the group said it has been able to partly offset the decline through its inventory cuts.
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