Swedish maker of ball bearings to raise manufacturing level.

• Large Swedish enterprises on the way up

The world's biggest bearings maker, Sweden's SKF, expects demand to be “significantly higher” in the second quarter than a year ago, the company said in an outlook Tuesday.

Last year the Gothenburg-based bearings maker saw demand plunge because of the global downturn. But in the first quarter demand developed positively, the company said, particularly within the automotive business.

“Going forward into the second quarter we expect demand to be significantly higher than the same quarter last year and slightly higher sequentially”, Tom Johnstone, chief executive officer of SKF said.

“As a result of this demand picture we increased our manufacturing as the first quarter progressed which gave a good effect on our cost absorption, particularly in March. We will keep this manufacturing level during the second quarter."

Last week SKF shares rose to their highest level in almost three years as it said first-quarter earnings and sales exceeded analysts’ estimates. Pretax profit almost tripled from a year earlier to 1.5 billion kronor ($209 million), while sales fell 3 percent to 14.45 billion kronor.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 20 April 2010 07:53)

 
PDF Print E-mail