The first six months of the current financial year have brought significant progress for automotive parts supplier Faurecia (Nanterre / France; www.faurecia.com). Sales and earnings rose considerably and net debt was halved to around EUR 400m. Above-average performance was helped by technologies for powertrain electrification and breakthrough "deNOx" solutions. CEO Patrick Koller emphasised that the company had moved forward particularly fast in securing important partnerships for vehicle interiors in Asia. For this reason, the French company has now upped its targets for sales and profit margins for the full year.

The car parts supplier puts value-added sales in the first half at just under EUR 8.6 bn, with an organic growth of 8.5%. Operating income was nearly 20% above the corresponding figure for last year, amounting to EUR 587m. Net income grew nearly one-third to EUR 314m.

Globally, the Seating business accounted for 42% of sales, followed by Interiors (31%) and Clean Mobility (27%). Europe was responsible for around 50% of global turnover.

The income from the sale last year of the Automotive Exteriors business to competitor Plastic Omnium (PO, Levallois / France; https://plasticomnium.com/fr) has since been well invested. Faurecia is planning to develop technologies for fuel cell vehicles, for which, only a few weeks ago, the company acquired access to the technology and process know-how for high-pressure hydrogen tanks from aircraft supplier Stelia Aerospace (www.stelia-aerospace.com – see Plasteurope.com of 12.06.2017). For the Clean Mobility business, Koller expects average annual growth of 7% over the next 15 years, with sales expected to reach EUR 10 bn in 2030.

For its Interiors business, the French company has opted for partnerships focusing on a networked vehicle interior for the future. The necessary technological progress in connectivity and infotainment was through majority takeovers of Parrot Automotive (Paris / France; www.parrotautomotive.com) and Jiangxi Coagent Electronics (Fengcheng, Jiangxi / China). In addition, Faurecia has concluded a partnership with ZF Friedrichshafen (Friedrichshafen / Germany; www.zf.com) for future-oriented interior and safety technologies for autonomous driving.

On the Chinese market, where Koller aims for sales of EUR 5 bn by the year 2022, joint ventures have also been established with Dongfeng for Clean Mobility and Wuling Industry for Seating.