Dana sales, income climb in Q2, first half

MAUMEE, Ohio—Despite its challenges, 2023 has been kind to Dana Inc. And the second quarter was no exception.

Maumee-based Dana—the sixth largest North American-based supplier according to Automotive News—recorded both higher sales and income for the three- and six-month periods, improving year-over-year results for both. Dana Chairman and CEO James Kamsickas credited careful operations management and growing demand for the company's innovations as reasons for growth.

"I am extremely proud of how the Dana team is executing across our operations, including a substantial number of launches for both electrified and traditional programs, as well as our ongoing transformation toward zero emissions," Kamsickas said in a statement. "The challenging production environment has persisted, but we have positioned ourselves well to take advantage as supply chains and customer order patterns continue to stabilize. As a result, we expect our momentum to carry through the back half of the year as demand remains strong across each of our end markets."

Sales for the second quarter came in at $2.75 billion, marking a $162 million increase over the same period a year ago. Net income came in at $36 million—up $26 million year-over-year.

EBITDA also grew year over year, coming in at $243 million for the quarter—a margin improvement of 250 basis points over the $162 million from Q2 2022. Higher sales, cost recovery efforts and lower net commodity costs benefited Dana, but were partially offset by production inefficiencies from volatile customer demand schedules and negative exchange rates.

For the first six months of 2023, sales eclipsed $5.39 billion, an improvement over the $5.06 billion a year earlier. Net income stood at $67 million, up from the $30 million for the first half in 2022.

The strength of the first six months led Dana to revise upward its guidance for the fiscal year. The company expects sales to fall in the $10.45 billion to $10.95 billion range, and EBITDA to come in between $800 million and $900 million.

"Strong demand, great execution, and improved market dynamics have allowed us to increase our full-year guidance for 2023," Timothy Kraus, Dana senior vice president and chief financial officer, said in a news release. "Throughout the second half of the year, we remain focused on delivering our program launch commitments, offsetting external cost increases, and continuing to win new business."

Each of the company's business segments showed year-over-year improvements in both sales and earnings for the second-quarter and first-half. The only exception was Power Technologies, where segment EBITDA dipped slightly for both the quarter and a half.

Ultimately, light vehicle business drove Dana's second-quarter and first-half performance with sales coming in at $1.07 billion and $2.03 billion, respectively—improving year-over-year for each period. EBITDA for the quarter was $66 million, while first-half EBITDA for the light vehicle segment came in at $115 million

The Off-Highway segment recorded $842 million in sales for the second quarter—up from the $768 million a year earlier. First-half off-highway sales were $1.68 billion, up about $172 million from the first half of 2022. Second-quarter EBITDA for the segment was $131 million, while EBITDA for the first half stood at $249 million.

Commercial vehicle sales totaled $526 million for the quarter and $1.05 billion for the six months ended June 30. Meanwhile, Power Technologies reported $314 million in sales for the quarter and $632 million in sales for the half.

The commercial vehicle segment reported second-quarter EBITDA of $28 million and first-half EBITDA of $45 million, while Power Technologies recorded EBITDA of $19 million for the quarter and $42 million for the half.