Day: 27 February 2020

French car maker PSA anticipates a year-on-year decline of -3% in the automotive market in Europe in 2020 and by -2% in Russia. It also foresees a stable automotive market in Latin America, Kallanish learns from the group’s 2019 financial statement.

PSA manufactured 1,226,000 cars in France in 2019 representing 36% of its global production output. Fifteen models are manufactured in France, including high value-added models at five assembly plants. 33% of the models produced in France are for the domestic market and 67% are exported to the rest of Europe and beyond. Last year PSA exported 379,000 vehicles, up 5% versus 2018.

“PSA continues to have strong roots in France… …ensuring that its “French plants are competitive in a challenging economic environment, while also contributing to the energy transition,” chairman of Groupe PSA’s Managing Board Carlos Tavares says in a note.

The company’s total inventory, including independent dealers and importers, stood at 606,000 vehicles at 31 December 2019, down 74,000 vehicles compared to 31 December 2018, PSA says.

Spanish-headquartered stainless steel producer Acerinox has received the green light from the European authorities to take full control of Germany’s VDM, a producer of specialty alloys, Kallanish notes.

The acquisition was first announced in November last year. Acerinox said that it had decided to buy VDM “… to create a world leader in both stainless and specialty alloys”. The two companies produce “… complementary products with similar end use”, Acerinox explained.

VDM has seven production plants located in Germany and the US, supported by four service centres.

In 2019 VDM produced and sold around 43,000 tonnes of products, up 7% from 2017. Sales amounted to €852 million, up 13% compared with 2017. 2019 results had been generally unchanged compared to those in 2018.

VDM’s output is of sophisticated niche products with high growth potential, Acerinox says. The Spanish company calculates that the demand in the specialty alloys market (excluding seamless tubes) has reached a level of over 310,000t globally in 2018, up 4% from 2010. VDM is the largest global supplier of these high-performance products, used mainly in the aerospace, oil and gas, nuclear, chemical and automotive industries.