Auto parts maker Forvia's sales outpace car production

By Lina Golovnya and Diana Mandia

(Reuters) -Forvia, the European car parts maker born from Faurecia's takeover of Hella, on Monday said its first-quarter sales outpaced global car production even as uncertainty over semiconductor supply persisted.

The automotive sector has been hit by several supply disruptions stemming from the pandemic, including a global chip shortage that hit production.

"We continue to have a reduction in the number of shortages that can occur and the number of shortage instances, but it is not eliminated," finance chief Olivier Durand told journalists. He said the blockages were mostly related to analog semiconductors.

Durand said the gradual improvement was in line with expectations, but the overall situation was still tough.

"The raw materials (prices) are in fact softening and some of them decreasing with one exception," Durand said in a call with analysts, pointing to "strong tension" in semiconductors with some price increases.

Forvia, which sells seats, dashboards and fuel systems to carmakers, recorded first-quarter sales up 29% to 6.64 billion euros ($7.29 billion) from 5.15 billion a year earlier.

It said the numbers excluded Faurecia's SAS Cockpit Modules arm which it agreed to sell in February.

Organic sales growth of 17.6% "significantly outperformed" global car production, CEO Patrick Koller said, with all of Forvia's main regions – EMEA, Americas and Asia – outpacing their geographies.

Worldwide automotive production grew 2.7% in the same period, according to Forvia.

Faurecia's shares were up 1.8% at 0917 GMT.

The group said the growth was helped by an additional month of Hella consolidation after it closed the acquisition early last year.

Forvia, which has said it plans to mitigate the impact of inflation in 2023 through contractual pass-through policies and continued negotiations with customers, saw a positive inflation-related impact of around 240 basis points in the quarter.

Faurecia's shares were up 1.8% at 0917 GMT.

($1 = 0.9106 euros)

(Reporting by Lina Golovnya and Diana Mandiá in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi and Jason Neely)