ZF sales up 43% in first half

German automotive supplier ZF expects its growth momentum to continue through the whole year after a 43 percent growth in the first half of 2021.

The company's sales from January to June soared to 19.3 billion euros ($22.92 billion), according to statistics released on Thursday. They were 13.5 billion euros in the same period last year.

"We took the momentum from the second half of 2020 into this year and benefited from the economic recovery of the automotive industry," said ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider.

"At the same time, we have continuously developed our organization in terms of agile cooperation and secured numerous new orders with innovative technologies for lowering emissions and enhancing vehicle safety," he said.

Despite the current supply chain situation, ZF said it sticks to its forecast for the overall year, which ranges from 37 billion euros to 39 billion euros.

"From today's perspective, sales are expected to be at the upper end of the range," said the company in a statement.

China is one of the most important markets for ZF, but it did not give an estimate of sales in different regions. Last year, ZF generated revenue of 6.4 billion euros in the country, up 10 percent from 2019 and accounting for roughly one-fifth of ZF's global total.

In an interview earlier this year with China Daily, Scheider said he expects even greater business performance in China in coming years.

"Absolutely, we want to grow. Overall, the Asia-Pacific region should be one-third of our business, and it is mainly from China. So we're going in the direction of 30 percent, that is something we're aiming at," he said.