BERLIN (Reuters) – German automotive supplier Continental AG cut its growth forecast for the production of passenger and light commercial vehicles in 2021 on Thursday due to a chip supply crunch it sees persisting throughout the year.
Continental trimmed its forecast for production to rise 8% to 10%, down from a previous forecast for 9% to 12%. It also cut the upper end of its 2021 sales outlook for the automotive division to 16.5 billion euros ($19.54 billion)from 17 billion.
Shares in Continental were down 3.5% at 0719 GMT.
The company reported a 50% jump in second-quarter sales but said semiconductors bottlenecks slowed automotive production in the quarter.
“In the automotive technologies group sector … the burden of the chip bottleneck is clearly being felt,” Chief Executive Nikolai Setzer said in statement.
Sales came in at 9.9 billion euros in the second quarter and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were at 711 million euros, compared to a loss of 635 million euros in the same quarter last year.
($1 = 0.8443 euros)
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa, editing by Emma Thomasson and David Goodman)
