(AOF) – Delfingen has raised its target in terms of operating margin for the 2021 financial year. The specialist in protection and routing solutions for on-board electrical and fluid networks now anticipates an operating margin of around 6%, against 5 % previously. However, the guidance was lowered last November.
In 2021, the group achieved revenue of 363 million euros, up 50.1% year on year on a reported basis and +11.5% on an organic basis. The group is thus doing better than its objective, which was around 345 million euros.
However, the year was not easy for Delfingen since it was faced with an unstable market context, whether in terms of the variability of demand, the shortage of materials and components, the soaring purchase prices or logistical difficulties.
Faced with this situation, which will continue, the group says it is doing everything possible to adapt the management of its operations and its cost structure. It also says it is developing its range of products and services “to meet the challenges of transforming the automotive industry towards clean and sustainable mobility”.
AOF – LEARN MORE
Automotive / Equipment manufacturers: A slow recovery
After a bad year 2020, some actors
expect a very gradual return to the level of activity prior to the crisis: not before 2024-2025.
The global pandemic weighed heavily on the accounts of Valeo, Faurecia and Plastic Omnium.
2020, a bad year for French equipment manufacturers.
All three ended 2020 posting losses, despite recovering in the second half. Faurecia recorded 379 million euros in losses last year. Its sales tumbled 35.4% in the first half, following the shutdown of automobile production in China, then in Europe and the United States. Its turnover fell by nearly 20%, to 14.6 billion euros, over the year as a whole and its operating margin rate fell from 7.2% to 2.8% .
Its competitor, Plastic Omnium, posted a decline in turnover of 16.7% in 2020, to 7.7 billion euros. Staff costs and general expenses were reduced by 240 million euros and investments by 27%. Including 250 million in asset impairments, its net loss reached 251 million in 2020.
Valeo suffered a drop in its turnover of 16%, to 16.4 billion euros, and a net loss slightly greater than one billion euros.
Hydrogen, a new Eldorado for equipment manufacturers
The production of green hydrogen is an alternative to electric batteries. Bosch, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers, will invest by 2024 one billion euros in fuel cells, which transform hydrogen into electricity. The German group predicts that the green hydrogen market in Europe will represent nearly 40 billion euros by 2030, with annual growth rates of 65%. He estimates that the market for mobile fuel cell components, intended for vehicles, will represent around 18 billion euros by the end of the decade.
French automotive suppliers are also seeking to capture part of this market. Michelin and Faurecia rely on their subsidiary Symbio, which produces fuel cells. Plastic Omnium aims to become a world leader in hydrogen by 2030 and achieve 3 billion euros in sales by that date.