Magna has lacklustre Q1 as lower auto sales take the shine off

Aurora, Ontario — Magna International which supplies automotive seating and interiors had total sales of $10.6 bn in first quarter of 2019. This is down 1.9% on the equivalent period last year.

Adjusted EBIT across the business fell 17.7% and reached $720 m in the first quarter of 2019.

Sales fell partly due to currency effects as the Euro, Canadian Dollar, Turkish lira and Chinese Yuan all fell against the US dollar in the quarter.

The company's Seating Systems business had sales which fell 2.5% between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019 . They reached $1.4 bn in the Q1 2019 period. This compares with $1.5 bn in the equivalent period last year.

At the same time, Adjusted EBIT in the division fell 27.7%. It reached $94 m in the first quarter of 2019. This compares with $130 m reached in the equivalent period last year.

Weaker foreign currency accounted for around $67 m of the fall in sales.

In addition, lower levels of light vehicle production and lower prices going in to the quarter hit the numbers. However, these effects were partly offset by new production of seating systems for the BMW X5, Geely Gin Yue, Skoda Kodiaq and BMW X7 cars.

These factors were all reflected in the division's lower adjusted EBIT numbers, Magna said.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Don Walker Magna's CEO said: 'We have revised our Outlook for 2019 to reflect lower vehicle production globally.'

He continued: 'Despite these matters, we remain confident in our ability to outpace production in our markets.'