BMW announced on Wednesday a fall of a quarter of its net profit in the first quarter. The German car manufacturer has notably suffered from the drop in sales in China, its main market.
The Bavarian group gave net profit of 2.17 billion euros (2.03 billion francs), 26.4% less than twelve months earlier, he said in a statement. The Munich manufacturer is now fearing the impact of the increase in American customs duties, which also threatens to weaken sales in the United States.
After three years of exceptional profits, German car manufacturers have faced the amount of demand since last year, the rise in costs, in particular energy, and the competition of Chinese brands that are better positioned in the electric ranges.
To these difficulties is now added the increase in American customs duties on imported cars, in force since April 3, a new blow for car manufacturers, which have long supported the growth of the first European economy, breathless by 2 years of recession.
Unchanged forecasts
-Volkswagen and Mercedes also announced last week of the setbacks in their results, weighed down by China and by the decline in their profitability. Mercedes suspended his forecasts for the year 2025, providing for a fall of three points of his margin on car sales in the event that the American customs duties in force are maintained.
For its part, BMW can estimate their impact ‘only on the basis of hypotheses’, he said in its press release, without modifying its forecasts. The manufacturer of high -end vehicles still tables always on a margin between 5 and 7% for the current year, against 6.3% in 2024, and almost 10% the previous year.
These forecasts only take into account additional customs duties on steel and aluminum in force since March 12. They should cost BMW a percentage point on its operational margin, the group said in March. In detail, the group achieved a turnover of 33.76 billion euros in the first quarter, down 7.8%, leaded by the fall of 17% of its car deliveries to China.
Its margin melted at 6.9% against 8.8% in the first quarter of last year, partly due to the ‘depreciation and amortization’ of its Chinese co-enterprise, the statement said.
/ATS
