Nuremberg (dpa / lby) – The Nuremberg car supplier Leoni continues to struggle economically. In the first nine months of the current financial year, sales fell by five percent compared to the same period last year to 2.841 billion euros, the company announced on Tuesday. The bottom line is a loss of 88 million euros – in the same period last year it was only a minus of eight million euros.
The price increases in wages and raw materials have led to significant cost increases, said CEO Aldo Kamper of the German Press Agency. The company had to calculate with so-called threatened losses. But since the hoped-for price increases should not be shown in the balance sheet, the actual situation is somewhat exaggerated, said Kamper. However, he admitted: “The basic business is currently quite exhausting in the supplier industry.”
The demand from the automotive industry is basically still there. “We still have more of a supply problem than a demand problem at the moment, Kamper said. Availability of semiconductors remains a limiting element. But it remains to be seen how the demand situation for vehicles develops if the general costs for consumers continue to rise fears of inflation played less of a role in the large markets in America and China because energy costs are not rising to the same extent as in Europe.
Leoni specializes, among other things, in wiring systems for cars and, according to Kamper, is little affected by the transformation from combustion engines to electric drives. The listed group of companies employs around 100,000 people in 28 countries and achieved group sales of 5.1 billion euros in 2021. Wiring harnesses for cars are produced in the Ukraine, among other places. The two Leoni plants there have so far been spared from the Russian attacks, but the employees are repeatedly unsettled by air raid alarms. The production that is then lost will be made up for around the weekend.
