Car manufacturer Volkswagen expects to be badly affected by the war in Ukraine this year. It is already disrupting supply chains for materials and components. Moreover, rising prices for commodities like steel could cause even more financial pain.
Nevertheless, in the first quarter, the German group still made a much higher profit than a year earlier, Volkswagen reports in its preliminary figures.
In the first three months of 2022, Volkswagen had an adjusted operating profit, i.e. before taxes, interest and one-off items, of 8.5 billion euros. A year earlier, that result was 4.8 billion euros. In the past quarter, Volkswagen benefited from, among other things, a 3.5 billion euro revaluation of financial products with which the group hedges against price increases.
Despite the positive results, there is a lot of uncertainty about the rest of the year due to the war on the eastern border of the European Union. The consequences of this are difficult to predict, according to Volkswagen. In addition, the corona infections in China are increasing again, to which the Chinese government is responding with very strict lockdowns.
Furthermore, Volkswagen considers new chip shortages due to the corona pandemic. Last year, almost all major car manufacturers had to temporarily stop production because they could not get access to chips.
