Honeywell car parts ops expects profits
Honeywell's (HON.N) car parts business expects to post profits in 2009 and 2010, unlike many of its rivals, thanks to a growing demand for its efficiency-increasing turbo chargers, the unit's head told Reuters.
Our earnings have bottomed out in the first quarter, we posted a profit in the second quarter and expect the third and fourth quarter to be better, Honeywell's Transportation Systems CEO Alex Ismail said at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday.
Restructuring has been mostly achieved, he said, adding that sales could be up to $3.3 billion in 2009.
In 2008 the Transportation Systems segment posted sales of $4.6 billion.
We are in a sweet spot of the industry, Ismail said, adding that he expected demand for turbo chargers to explode in the coming years, as car manufacturers look for ways to increase fuel efficiency.
We expect the penetration of turbo chargers to surge from today's usage in 24 percent of the cars to 72 percent in 2020, he said.
However, he does not expect a rebound of global car markets to 2007-levels until 2011/2012.
Turbo chargers compress petrol and increase the density of air entering the engine to create more power. This can, for example, enable engine makers to only use four cylinders instead of six without losing engine strength.
Ismail also said that the Transportation Systems unit continued to look into all options to expand its business but that it was in no concrete talks with acquisition targets at present.
Anything concerning technology for energy efficiency would be of interest to us., he said.
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze)