Annual Report 2001 - KSPG AG

Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG
Executive Board report
Management report on the Kolbenschmidt Pierburg Group
Reporting format
This report on 2001 is the first annual
report the Kolbenschmidt Pierburg
Group has prepared in accordance with
the IASB’s International Accounting
Standards (IAS). To ensure a meaningful
comparison, the prior-year data
(in 2000 still based on the German
Commercial Code, or “HGB”) was
subsequently restated to conform to
IAS and contrasted to the IAS-based
disclosures for fiscal 2001.
Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG’s
Executive Board
Dr. Gerd Kleinert
The changeover to IAS as primary
accounting basis meant that three
special-purpose property companies
had to be additionally included in the
consolidation group as of December
31, 2000 as well as 2001.
Set up as of April 1, 2001, together
with SAIC, one of China's biggest
automotive companies, the joint
venture Kolbenschmidt Pierburg
Shanghai Nonferrous Components
Co. Ltd. (KPSNC), Shanghai, China,
has been included at equity in the
Air Supply & Pumps division.
MotorEngineering is a division operating
in the market for exhaust gas,
flowmeter and workshop measuring
equipment for developing and servicing
I.C. engines and accounts for a
mere 2 percent of the Group’s annual
sales. Thus, it is not eligible for inclusion
as one of the Kolbenschmidt
Pierburg Group’s core businesses
and therefore effective the turn of
2001/2002, AVL Holding GmbH, Graz,
Austria, as part of a joint venture
agreement, has taken over a majority
stake in the division’s parent company
Pierburg Instruments GmbH, in which
it is also exercising industrial management.
While this company’s income
statement is reflected in Kolbenschmidt
Pierburg AG’s consolidated
financial statements, its balance sheet
as of December 31, 2001, is not. In
future, this company will be included
at equity. Additionally, the 100-percent
stake held in Pierburg Instruments Inc.,
Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA, a company
serving the American market with
the development, manufacture, and
marketing of flowmeter and exhaust
gas measuring equipment, was deconsolidated
and sold as of January 1,
2001, to AVL Michigan Holding Inc.,
Plymouth, Michigan, USA.
As of January 1, 2001, Vehicle Spares
Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, was sold and
likewise deconsolidated.
Regarding changes in the consolidation
group, the comparative figures
for the past two years are those certified
in the annual accounts; due to
the marginal significance of such
changes, a comparable restatement
has been waived.
Dr. W. Hans Engelskirchen Dr. Jörg-Martin Friedrich Georg Liebler Dr. Peter Merten
12 13
Business trend
Fiscal 2001 for Kolbenschmidt Pierburg
was overclouded by the worsening
economic conditions in the course of
the year. Nonetheless, most of the
Group’s companies successfully upheld
their position in the markets, the
consequence being that Group sales
gained by 2.8 percent to €1,825.5
million. Five of the six divisions played
their part in improving sales revenues
over the previous year. The growth
regions in 2001 were Western Europe
and South America, whereas the
Group’s activities in North America
suffered from reduced customer calloffs
and project postponements.
World production down
Passenger car production by
selected regions
(million units)
Following the upswing of 2000, auto
and LCV production in Asia in 2001
re-declined (down 1.7 percent). It was
particularly in the volume markets of
Japan and South Korea that car production
fell by 2.1 and 3.4 percent,
respectively. LCV production in these
countries also dropped, by 6.0 and
1.7 percent, respectively. In contrast
and although from a relatively low
baseline, car production in China
again revved up, by 28.1 percent to
0.7 million units. Including the LCVs,
which account for a major slice of
automotive output in China, production
added up to 1.8 million units (up
10.4 percent).
On the basis of the existing projections,
world production of autos and
light commercial vehicles (LCVs, under
3.5 t) in 2001 dropped by 3.1 percent
to 53.6 million, of which automobiles
accounted for 39.8 million (down 2.3
percent) and LCVs for 13.8 million
(down 5.5 percent). A major problem
for the carmakers is the declining
sales in major world markets (NAFTA,
Japan), which are hardly retrievable
elsewhere.
Within NAFTA, the United States produced
much fewer autos (around 4.9
million, down 11.9 percent) and LCVs
(around 6.3 million, down 9.0 percent)
than back in 2000, even though the
final quarter of the period saw a number
of special campaigns such as zerointerest
financing, cash incentives,
and early re-leasing options, which
together did help prop up sales,
Western/Eastern Europe
2000
2001 (provisional)
NAFTA
Asia incl. Japan
8.4
7.4
Western Europe in 2001 again showed
a slight gain in the production of cars
and LCVs, this time by 1.4 percent to
16.8 million units. Whereas France
and Germany boosted production to
just over 3.5 million vehicles (up 7.8
percent) and 5.2 million (up 3.5 percent),
respectively, output in Italy fell
to a good 1.5 million units (down 9.5
percent) as in Spain to just under 2.9
million units (down 1.9 percent) and
Britain to just under 1.7 million units
(down 7.1 percent). In Germany, exports
rose by 5 percent to a good 3.6 million
units. In contrast, the number of newly
registered vehicles fell by 1.4 percent
in Western Europe. The number of
foreign makes registered declined by
though at the expense of severely
eroded earnings. Production figures
in Canada slumped too, cars falling to
1.3 million units (down 17.2 percent)
and LCVs to 1.2 million (down 8.4 percent).
In South America, the number of cars
and LCVs produced gained by 1.9 percent
to around 1.9 million units. Whereas
production in Brazil advanced by
over 8 percent, the figure for Argentina
crumbled by almost 31 percent due to
that nation’s economic woes.
–11.9%
Sales growth
despite
tough conditions
13.1
12.9
–1.5%
17.2
17.4 +1.2%
6 percent whereas German brands
gained by almost 1 percent.
Diesel engines
advancing
Diesel engine cars and station wagons
once more progressed in the markets
of Western Europe, particularly those
of the mass producers Volkswagen,
PSA, and Renault, which offer a large
number of diesel engines. In Germany
and France, the proportion of such
vehicles as a percentage of car and
station wagon production, rose by
almost 4 percent to some 38 and 41
percent, respectively.