PARIS – The French supplier Faurecia has lowered its main 2021 financial targets, citing new forecasts for the global automotive market published last week by the information provider IHS Markit.
Faurecia noted that IHS Markit now estimated worldwide car production at 72 million vehicles this year compared with an earlier forecast of 76.8 million, a sharp reduction primarily attributable to a higher than expected impact from semiconductor shortages.
“Faurecia’s financial guidance for 2021 was explicitly based on the assumption of 76.6 million vehicles produced in the full year,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Based on this new assumption, Faurecia now sees full year sales of 15.5 billion euros ($18.2 billion) versus a previous target of 16.5 billion. The group, which won a bidding war to take control of the German lighting group Hella last month, says its 2021 operating margin will range from 6 percent to 6.2 percent, versus a previous guidance of 7 percent.
Faurecia’s net cash flow target, which the group had upgraded at the end of July, was also lowered, to around 500 million euros versus a previous target of a total exceeding that figure.
“The revised 2021 guidance, adjusted to reflect the sharp reduction in worldwide automotive production to 72 million vehicles in FY 2021, confirms Faurecia’s strong operating leverage and effectiveness of resilience actions,” the company said.
Faurecia, based outside of Paris, specializes in seating, interior components, cockpits, electronics and clean mobility. It ranks No. 8 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers, with worldwide sales to automakers of $17.6 billion in 2020.