Volkswagen AG reported on Tuesday that despite supply-chain issues causing its net cash flow to fall significantly short of target, its 2022 earnings margin was at the high end of its prediction at 8.1%, with sales and earnings above 2021 levels.
Volkswagen's earnings of 22.5 billion euros ($24.11 billion) put it at the higher end of the 7-8.5% margin it predicted in March of last year. Sales also above expectations, coming in at almost 279 billion euros in 2021 as opposed to 250.2 billion the year before.
However, net cash flow was only about 5 billion euros, falling short of the 8.6 billion euros objective. The company attributed this to an unstable supply chain that caused it to hold large inventories of unfinished goods, supplies, and materials.
The Volkswagen Group announced in January that deliveries were up 12% in the second half of 2022, but full-year deliveries were the lowest in almost a decade as supply chains were disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdowns in China and the war in Ukraine.
Arno Antlitz, the carmaker's chief financial officer, stated in October that the company had 150,000 unfinished vehicles in its inventory and was stockpiling supplies to guard against any shortages while also raising prices and reducing costs to offset reduced unit sales.
Ford Motor Company last week forecasted lower pre-tax profit for 2023 after attributing a decline in quarterly earnings to supply-chain challenges, particularly the persistent shortage of chips that led to lower-than-expected volumes.
Volkswagen also issued a warning in January, stating that supply-chain constraints and weak economies continued to cast a shadow over the year 2023.
