Automotive Technology

Order intake and sales

At Automotive Technology, order intake and sales were down year-on-year because of declining demand. This affected almost all business units and all high-volume regions. Compared with the prior year, Bilstein increased order intake and sales as the result of growth in the aftermarket business.

Adjusted EBIT

Adjusted EBIT was below the prior-year level, mainly due to lower volumes, reduced capacity utilization in automotive plant engineering and expenses for quality issues. Positive effects came from the reduction in personnel expenses (despite increases resulting from collective wage agreements due to factors such as previous restructuring measures), APEX measures (e.g., the negotiation of new prices, claims for volume shortfalls, reduced material costs and a number of measures to increase efficiency) and lower non-conformity costs at Automation Engineering.

Special items

Material special items related to restructuring expenses (€172 million) and impairment losses (€86 million).

Investments

Investments were below the prior-year level. In the Steering unit, we continued to invest in order-related projects for electric power-assisted steering systems in Mexico and Europe, for example. Dynamic Components made order-related investments in the production of rotor and camshaft modules in Germany, Hungary, Mexico, China and Brazil. By investing in forward-looking products and manufacturing sites in economically attractive regions close to our customers we aim to exploit growth opportunities; this will also help us achieve our cost and profitability targets.