Chinese-owned Volvo Cars said on Friday its revenue hit a record in 2021 but global supply chain bottlenecks caused sales and profits to fall in the last quarter of the year.
Owned by Geely, the Sweden-based company said a global shortage of semiconductors – an essential tech component in modern cars – had worsened in the second half of 2021.
“The result was a year of two halves,” Volvo Cars said in an earnings statement. “During the first half, the market was up by double digits but abruptly stalled in the second half due to COVID-related shutdowns in southeast Asia and other semiconductor-related production disturbances,” it said.
Retail sales fell by 20 per cent to 168,000 units in the fourth quarter of the year. But revenue fell at a smaller rate, six per cent, as “strong demand had a positive effect on prices and the sale of more expensive cars” while interest in electrified cars continued to grow globally. Revenue fell to 80 billion kronor (€7.5bn) from the same quarter in 2020 while net profit sank by 60 per cent to 2.3 billion kronor.
The picture was brighter for the full year, with revenues jumping by seven per cent to 282 billion kronor. Net profit soared to 14.2...
