The shortage of chips and the high price of raw materials in the car industry hinder Renault’s recovery from the corona crisis. Due to the shortages, the French car group expects to produce 200,000 fewer cars this year than it would like.
In the past six months, sales were considerably higher than in the first half of 2020 but were well below the usual numbers for corona.
Renault sold more than 1.4 million vehicles of all its makes from January to June, increasing almost 19 percent year on year. The Lada and Dacia brands, in particular, grew strongly. As a result, their sales increased by more than 41 percent and just under 25 percent respectively on an annual basis. However, that is not enough to make up for the complete collapse of the car market after the virus outbreak, as Renault’s total sales are still more than 24 percent below the level of 2019.
In total, more than 23 billion euros in turnover came in in the first half of the year, compared to more than 18 billion euros a year earlier. However, unlike last year, the French car group made a profit again. This amounted to 368 million euros. That is far behind the more than 1 billion euros that were raised in the first half of 2019 but is an improvement on the loss of 7.4 billion that Renault suffered a year ago.
The car manufacturer sees the shortage of electronic parts, including chips, as a challenge for the coming six months. Therefore, Renault does not expect to book a more favourable profit margin than during the first half of the year, which means that the recovery towards 2019 will take a while. As a result, the average operating profit per car is expected to remain at just under 3 percent this year, compared to almost 5 percent two years ago.
