More investments in Europe in the semiconductor sector, which with the mutilated deliveries of recent months afflicts the global automotive industry and reduces its sales and revenues, but also moderate fears that the new shortage, that of magnesium, could affect the performance of producers. Word of Oliver Zipse, CEO of BMW, who took the opportunity to comment on the new critical moment in the Automotive sector on the sidelines of the communication on the quarterly accounts. Incredible accounts, because sales are falling as for everyone – precisely because of the microchip crisis due to the excess demand for new cars, many on tap, in which electronics are the masters – but profits soar thanks to prices. A policy which benefits above all premium brands, and BMW, such as Daimler, are rightly among them.
And so the Munich house was able to beat analysts’ forecasts with a 42.4% year-on-year increase in third-quarter net profit to 2.58 billion euros.
The German company, which earlier this year said it expected up to 90,000 fewer cars in 2021 due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips, saw shipments drop, in fact, by 12.2% in the third quarter. , but still increased revenues by 4.5%. The operating profit margin was 7.8%. In the first nine months, BMW recorded a net profit of 10.2 billion, an increase of 370% compared to 2.2 billion a year earlier.
Electric vehicles, in particular, saw a significant boost, with sales in the nine months to September nearly doubled compared to 2020, to just under 232,000 vehicles (Tesla, for a comparison with the industry leader, travels on 600,000 units, already over 499,000 of the whole last year). “A better product mix and good new vehicle pricing coupled with a steady pricing trend for used vehicles have strengthened the financial performance of the business,” the company said.
Across Germany, passenger car production was 35% below 2019 levels in the three months to September, according to data from the automotive industry association, however, BMW maintains its EBIT margin forecast for the full year from 9.5% to 10.5% for its automotive division, an objective that can be achieved by acting on the cost of labor. “We are on track for our full-year forecasts,” said CFO Nicolas Peter, who also underlined the strong demand for the iX and I4 models (prices starting at 84,000 and 60,000 euros respectively). Although, but this is not news, “the semiconductor problem will persist well beyond 2021”.