Despite the high volatility in the ordering behaviour of OEMs, French automotive components supplier Akwel Automotive (Champfromier; www.akwel-automotive.com) manoeuvred its way very solidly through 2021, both with plastics and with finished products, thanks mainly to its forward-looking stock management approach. The recurring disruptions with production and the many supply bottlenecks nevertheless led to much higher costs, which appear to have weighed heavily on the results. According to provisional figures, the supplier expects the operating result for 2021 to show a one-third decline compared to 2019 and 2018.

While the second half of 2020 was characterised by a recovery in turnover, the second half of 2021 was below expectations. Despite lower production figures due to a shortage of raw materials and electronic components, Akwel actually achieved organic growth of 2.8%. However, the considerable currency turbulence in Turkey and the US dollar exchange rate pushed consolidated turnover for 2021 as a whole down by 1.6% compared to the previous year, to EUR 922.4 mn. Business with cooling circuits as well as mechanical and mechatronic components increased slightly, while emission control (SCR: selective catalytic reduction) and toolmaking declined.

Related: Importance of SCR systems appears to be declining

From a regional point of view, it was above all Asia and the Middle East that saw a decline, attributable mainly to the poor ordering by Turkish customers. The company’s domestic market of France also showed a significant downward trend, while the rest of Europe increased. Sales in North America remained virtually unchanged.

Forecasts for the automotive market in 2022 are, in the view of the Akwel management team, very uncertain. Although they expect sales to increase, they have not ventured a concrete statement either about the size of the increase or about the operating result. Bolstered by what it calls “a solid financial position”, the company will, however, stick to its policy of investing long-term in new developments, above all in the field of new mobility solutions.