Following a 2010 in which set targets were "clearly surpassed," Continental AG says it aims to achieve double-digit growth this year.

At the company’s annual financial press conference, held on Mar. 3, CEO Elmar Degenhart reported a sales growth of almost 30%, to 26 billion euros. This represents record sales for the automotive supplier, a personal best also matched by a record operating result.

Last year’s sales of 26.05 billion euros outstripped those in the industry-wide crisis year of 2009 by 2.52 billion euros. “Our great efforts have paid off,” commented Degenhart. “We grew at a faster rate than the recovering automotive markets, especially in the emerging Asian markets,” he added. Degenhart demonstrated this with figures showing automotive sector growth in Asia to be 21% in 2010, while Continental increased its sales in Asia at the corporate level by almost 50% to over 4 billion euros last year.

“After a good start and in light of a production forecast of 75 million passenger cars worldwide, we are striving to increase sales another 10% to more than 28.5 billion euros this year,” Degenhart stated. “We want to achieve our 2010 adjusted sales margin of 9.7% again in 2011. We are confident that we will achieve this goal although dramatic price increases for natural rubber in particular will negatively impact us with more than 700 million euros gross in additional raw materials expenses. We are anticipating an average natural rubber price of $5.50 per kilogram this year.” (Tyres & Accessories)