Audi Posts Record 1st Semester Sales, Hopes 2nd Half Will Be As Good

Upmarket German carmaker Audi posted record unit sales for the first half of the year but cautioned that bottlenecks in semiconductor supplies and increased raw material costs would impact the second half, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: The Audi Q3

The Volkswagen subsidiary delivered 982,000 vehicles over the first six months for sales of 29.2 billion euros ($34.7 billion), up 43 percent on the year. Pre-tax profits came in at 3.875 billion euros.

Chief financial officer Juergen Rittersberger said from the company's Ingolstadt headquarters that, while he remained optimistic on the second half, he did not expect the results to be as good.

The margin on turnover reached 10.7 percent, which is in the upper part of the target range. The company attributed this to the strong sales figures, being able to secure good prices, and positive effects from securing raw materials supplies.

Rittersberger is expecting a margin on turnover of 7 to 9 percent for the year as a whole. Stocks of semiconductors held by the company had been reduced, and there could be production stoppages in August and September, he predicted.

And the company would not be able to make good all the production losses incurred in the first half by the end of the year, he said.

"We will no longer see the positive effects from securing raw materials supplies in the second half," Rittersberger said, describing the situation as "challenging."

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