Continental AG's Sales Are Down 10.9% Year-Over-Year

May 7, 2020

Continental AG posted first quarter net sales of 9.8 billion euros, a 10.9% year-over-year decline. Adjusted EBIT fell to 432 million euros during 1Q 2020, about half of what Continental reported for 1Q 2019.

Sales in Continental's Automotive Technologies group totaled 4.1 billion euros during the first quarter. The company's Rubber Technologies group achieved sales of 4 billion euros during 1Q 2020.

"The economic environment has again deteriorated substantially since the beginning of March as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant that we have intensified cost-cutting even further," Continental officials said in the company's first quarter financial statement today.

"We are scrutinizing the necessity of all expenditures and investments at present and looking for savings that will prove effective in the short term."

Currently, production remains halted at one-fifth of Continental's 249 production locations across the globe. This includes Continental’s consumer tire plant in Sumter, S.C, which remains shuttered.

Continental resumed production at its consumer and commercial tire plant in Mount Vernon, Ill., on April 27. (The facility continued to manufacture tread rubber for retreading applications while new tire production was suspended.)

Combined, the Sumter and Mount Vernon plants can produce 57,800 units daily at peak capacity, according to MTD data.

Despite the present market situation, Continental is continuing to pursue and implement its Transformation 2019-2029 structural program, which is designed to "strengthen our competitiveness and viability in the long-term."