The bright spot of Continental AG’s sales in the first quarter of 2025 was its tires business, which reported a 3.7% gain in sales compared to the same period a year ago, and volumes that were up 0.6%.
Those gains helped the company improve its net income, which returned to profitability after reporting a loss of $55 million in the quarter a year ago.
Continental’s tires sector was the only business unit to report an increase of sales in the first quarter, as both its Automotive and ContiTech units experienced lagging sales numbers. The company is in the midst of spinning off the Automotive unit, which will be renamed Aumovio. Continental has said it also plans to spin off ContiTech, which will ultimately make Continental AG a tires-focused business.
In the first quarter, Continental’s tire sales totaled $3.69 billion, up from $3.55 billion in 2024. The company highlighted the EBIT margin in the tires group as being “significantly higher” than the previous period — 13.4% compared to 11.7% — and said “this was primarily due to a good start to the year in the replacement tire business across all regions.”
Continental says replacement tire volumes have been “solid” in both truck and passenger and light truck tire sales, “while OE remains on the low level.” The tiremaker also noted that a positive price/mix “overcompensated raw material headwind.”
The company reported price/mix resulted in a gain of 3.3% during the first quarter.
With overall global sales of $10.51 billion, down slightly (0.8%) from $10.56 billion, Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer said, “We made a solid start to the year, significantly improving our earnings for the Continental Group in the first quarter compared with 2024, and are confident that we will achieve our annual targets.”
Continental CFO Olaf Schick added, “The quarterly results reflect our focus on improving our financial position – and show that our efficiency measures are paying off. This is evident not only in earnings, but also in free cash flow, which was likewise up sharply year-on-year.”
Outlook for 2025
Continental did issue an outlook for 2025 — something businesses in any number of sectors have shied away from due to economic turmoil and the uncertainty of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But Continental also noted this: “The outlook for the year does not take into account any potential impact resulting from possible future trade restrictions.”
Continental expects consolidated sales to fall between $21.11 billion and $22.73 billion. (This does not include the existing Automotive business unit.) In tires, Continental forecasts sales in the range of $14.61 billion to $15.69 billion.
