Gestamp posts lower first-quarter revenue due to Covid-19

Spain’s Gestamp saw decreased revenues during the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company says in its quarterly report monitored by Kallanish. Gestamp is a major supplier of components to the global automotive sector.

As a result of the current situation, the group’s plants, with exception in China, saw gradual shutdowns during the second half of March, beginning from Europe, and extending to North and South America. Some of these operations were restarted and the company expects a gradual re-opening of most of the facilities during the coming weeks.

“The implementation of operational efficiencies and labour flexibility measures have allowed the company to have a satisfactory first-quarter performance. We expect to improve our results throughout the rest of the year. Activity levels in some of our plants in April are already in line with foreseen targets,” Gestamp says.

During Q1 2020 the global automotive sector saw a production decline of -23.2% on-year, while Gestamp’s performance fell -6.1%. “This quarter has been impacted by the unprecedented challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic and Gestamp has been able to outperform the market as a result of new projects and its lower exposure to Asia versus that of global production volumes,” the company confirms.

Gestamp`s total net revenues amounted to €2.01 billion ($2.19 billion) in Q1, or -7.3% less y-o-y. North America was the only region that saw an increase in sales. These were up by 7.5% over Q1 2019 at €495.0 million.  

During the first three months of 2020 the company posted a net profit of €14.0m, or -65.6% lower than the same period of last year. Ebitda fell by -22.6% to €192.6m y-o-y on the same basis.