German automotive supplier Continental expects sales growth to quicken to around 5 percent this year and to maintain a double-digit operating profit margin as global passenger car production rises moderately, it said.
Sales grew 3.5 percent to around 34.5 billion euros ($40.9 billion) last year, Continental said on January 12, in line with market expectations according to Thomson Reuters data despite negative exchange-rate effects of around 500 million euros.
"We systematically continued along our successful path last year despite the weak growth in Europe, Russia and South America," Chief Executive Elmar Degenhart said, announcing preliminary key figures at the motor show in Detroit, USA.
"We achieved this in spite of the further uncertainty added to the already volatile market development as a result of considerable exchange rate fluctuations in some cases or, as seen recently, the drop in the price of oil."
Continental made 2014 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of over 3.8 billion euros, beating market expectations averaging 3.75 billion euros and giving it an EBIT margin above 11 percent.
The company said it expected global production of passenger cars with a gross vehicle weight rating up to 6 metric tonnes to rise to roughly 89 million vehicles this year from 87 million last year.
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