Haldex Sales Down 25% in Third Quarter

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Source: Haldex announcement

LANDSKRONA, Sweden –  Haldex, the Swedish braking system supplier, reported a 25-percent drop in third quarter 2020 net sales (when compared to Q3 2019) on a total of SEK 964 million.

According to the Landskrona-based company, sales were impacted by the strength of the Swedish currency as well as continued uncertainty in the market for the remainder of 2020 due to Covid-19.

COVID-19 is continuing to squeeze people and communities. Haldex has escaped serious outbreaks of disease, but it has nevertheless been a challenging period. In spite of that, the organization has delivered and carried out necessary activities to adapt the business to the prevailing situation, and it sees clear positive impacts on income, despite an unusually large loss of sales.

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A very sharp decline in original-equipment manufacturing (OEM) customers’ production volumes in the second quarter was followed by a gradual recovery in the third quarter. The recovery was driven by goods transportation by road returning relatively quickly to near-normal volumes.

The industry anticipates that there will be a strong recovery in 2021, but that it will take a few more years to return to 2019 levels.

In terms of individual regions and customer segments, there were wide differences.

The North American region faced another challenging quarter, with net sales declining organically by 26 percent. Europe, on the other hand, showed a stronger recovery, and the downturn compared to the third quarter of 2019 was -13 percent.

Among customer segments, the aftermarket showed stability and recovery, but was nevertheless down nine percent.

Capacity utilization in the existing vehicle fleet has been consistently high, leading to increased demand for servicing and spare parts. The trailer segment also improved substantially compared to the second quarter, but sales were nevertheless 18 percent lower than in the third quarter of 2019.

Sales regarding new production of trucks and buses had another challenging quarter, and sales fell by 42 percent. The weak trend for the truck segment is chiefly explained by continued economic uncertainty due to COVID-19, effects of a previously reported lost contract in North America and a global decline in bus transportation.

The entire Haldex announcement and summary of Q3 results can be found by clicking HERE.

Mike Geylin
Mike Geylin

Mike Geylin is the Editor-in-Chief at Hagman Media. Geylin has been in automotive communications for five decades working in all aspects of the industry from OEM to supplier to motorsports as well as reporting for both newspapers and magazines on the industry.