OREANDA-NEWS. The international industrial and automotive supplier ContiTech increased its sales to around €5.4 billion in 2015. This equates to growth of 37 percent. Veyance Technologies Inc., which was acquired at the beginning of 2015, contributed roughly €1.15 billion to sales in total. This represents organic growth of 4 percent. "We are very satisfied with this result. The currently strong automotive industry in addition to positive performances in some industrial sectors have provided us with momentum. This is enabling us to cushion the continuing decline in mining- and oil-dependent business, which accounts for roughly 18 percent of our sales at present. This demonstrates yet again that our broad portfolio puts us in a strategically strong position," explained Hans-Juergen Duensing, member of the Executive Board of Continental responsible for the ContiTech division, at a press conference held at Hannover Messe 2016.

"2015 was a challenging year, especially for our mining customers. The sector is still experiencing economic difficulties as commodity prices remain extremely low, which has prompted it to cut its capital expenditure by more than half over the past few years. In the third quarter of 2015, this was accompanied by a significant deterioration in the oil industry," said Duensing, explaining the downward trend in these sectors and emphasizing at the same time that around 51 percent of sales were generated by the growing automotive industry, largely offsetting any fluctuations. "We made a positive start to fiscal 2016, but are still expecting a challenging environment for the current year. We are working consistently and with a heavy emphasis on the objective of improving our return on sales. The restructuring measures we introduced are expected to strengthen our earnings situation in this respect," declared Duensing.

In 2015, ContiTech achieved EBIT of €171 million (previous year: €433 million), the return on sales amounted to 3.2 percent (previous year: 11.0 percent). Before amortization of intangible assets from purchase price allocation (PPA) as well as special effects, earnings for fiscal 2015 came to €388 million. This corresponds to 7.2 percent of sales.

ContiTech posted an increase in the number of employees compared with the previous year. This resulted primarily from the acquisition of Veyance. ContiTech employed 42,648 people at the end of 2015, nearly 10,000 more than just a year ago. Around 8,000 Veyance employees joined the company in February 2015 alone.

Capital expenditure ratio stable
In the past year, ContiTech invested €245 million (previous year: €191 million) in new plants and production expansions worldwide, as well as in cost-cutting measures. The capital expenditure ratio of 4.6 percent in 2015 was slightly lower than the previous year's figure of 4.8 percent. "We have again reinforced our presence in Asia and North America to be where our customers are and thus meet the growing demand in these regions," said Duensing.

ContiTech invested predominantly in China, building a second plant for environmentally friendly automotive interior surfaces in Changzhou in 2015. In Changshu, the first compounding center was opened for supplying compounds locally and the production of hose applications in Hungary was expanded. ContiTech also expanded its production capacity for air spring systems in Mexico and laid the foundations for a new conveyor belt factory in Morocco. But the company also focused on Germany, putting into operation a new printing machine at the Hanover-Vinnhorst location and a blow-molding facility in Waltershausen.

ContiTech at Hannover Messe 2016
ContiTech will be represented at Hannover Messe 2016 with an array of sustainable solutions and trendsetting technologies for the industry and the off-highway sector. The rubber and plastics specialist will show all the things it can do with its materials expertise at stand F18 in hall 6. On show this year will be not only a high-performance belt for the lift drive in rack feeders, an engine mount for which natural rubber made of dandelion roots is used, and robust and powerful rubber crawler tracks for the agriculture and construction industry, but also an ultra-lightweight floor covering material for the aviation market. ContiTech will also demonstrate how innovative electronic conveyor belt monitoring systems can help determine the exact condition of the transport systems at all times and thus highlight potential damage in advance.