HANOVER, Germany—Despite a challenging year in key sectors, ContiTech A.G.'s sales in 2015 rose 37 percent to $6.1 billion thanks principally to the company's broad portfolio.
Earnings for the year came in at about $439.6 million, which corresponds to 7.2 percent of sales, the firm said.
Veyance Technologies Inc., purchased by ContiTech at the beginning of 2015, contributed about $1.7 billion in sales to the total.
“We are very satisfied with this result,” said Hans Jurgen Duensing, a member of the executive board of parent Continental A.G. responsible for the ContiTech division. “The currently strong automotive industry in addition to positive performances in some industrial sectors have provided us with momentum.
“This is enabling us to cushion the continuing decline in mining- and oil-dependent business, which accounts for roughly 18 percent of our sales at present. This demonstrates yet again that our broad portfolio puts us in a strategically strong position.”
Duensing, said 2015 was an especially difficult year for the company's mining customers, noting that the mining sector continues to experience economic difficulties because commodity prices remain extremely low. Capital expenditures have been cut by more than half in the sector during the last few years, he added.
In the third quarter, he said, deterioration in the oil industry became a significant factor.
At the same time, however, about 51 percent of ContiTech's sales were generated by the growing automotive industry, “largely offsetting any fluctuations,” according to Duensing.
“We made a positive start to fiscal 2016, but are still expecting a challenging environment for the current year,” he said. “We are working consistently and with a heavy emphasis on the objective of improving our return on sales. The restructuring measures we introduced are expected to strengthen our earnings situation in this respect.”
ContiTech's work force increased in 2015 to 42,648 employees at the end of 2015, nearly 10,000 more than the previous year. Around 8,000 Veyance employees joined the company in February 2015 alone.