Car parts manufacturer Magna International predicts above-average growth figures
Car parts maker Magna International has forecast growth in the car manufacturing sector over the rest of the decade.
The manufacturer, which owns Stadco in Telford and whose subsidiary Cosma is building a new castings plant in the town, issued its outlook for the new car market for 2017 and 2019.
It expects to notch up sales of between 36 billion dollars and 37.7 billion dollars (£29.7bn to £31.1bn) in 2017, which would reflect an increase of about 12 per cent from the 32.1 billion dollars (£26.5bn) it achieved in its last published full-year results in 2015. That is then expected to grow to as much as 46.2bn dollars (£38.1bn) in 2019.
"Magna has a long history of above-market sales growth, and 2016 was no exception," said the Canadian giant's chief executive Don Walker.
"As we look forward over the next three years, we expect our sales to continue to outpace industry production.
"Longer term, we believe our capabilities and new innovations, together with our deep customer relationships, will position us for continued growth as a preferred supplier for the car of the future."
Despite the addition of production in Shropshire, the company is not forecasting huge growth in Europe in 2017, however.
It has not yet published its results for 2016, but a year ago it forecast sales for last year of up to 9bn dollars (7.4bn). It now expects to grow sales to up to 9.1bn dollars (£7.5bn) this year, increasing to between 10.1bn dollars and 10.7bn dollars (£8.3bn to £8.8bn) in 2019.
