VOLKSWAGEN MADE $12B IN 2020 DESPITE PANDEMIC

Volkswagen is walking away from 2020 with a profit of more than $12 billion despite the coronavirus pandemic that torpedoed car sales and snarled manufacturing supply chains, Hanna Ziady reported for CNN Business.

The world's largest automaker said in a statement on Friday that it expects operating profit of €10 billion ($12.2 billion) for 2020, a performance helped by a strong finish to the year.

After losing €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) in the first six months of 2020, Volkswagen "proved to be quite robust in the second half," it added. Fourth quarter deliveries "continued to recover strongly" and outpaced the previous three months.

Volkswagen made nearly twice as much money in 2019, posting a profit of €19.3 billion ($23.5 billion) on sales of €252 billion ($306.6 billion). But shares in the company jumped as much as 6% in Frankfurt on Friday, suggesting that investors were expecting an even more precipitous drop in earnings.

Carmakers suffered a collapse in sales and disruption in supply chains during the early months of the pandemic. They are now facing a critical shortage of semiconductors that threatens to hamstring production just as the industry tries to stage a comeback.

Volkswagen has had to adapt production at plants in China, North America and Europe this quarter and could lose out on 100,000 units, or roughly 4% of global quarterly output, as a result of the components shortages, according to UBS analysts.

The German carmaker, which also owns the Audi and Porsche brands, said last week that it "slightly expanded" its share of the worldwide passenger car market in 2020.

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