STOCKHOLM -- Swedish bearings maker SKF forecast stable demand for its main industrial business in the third quarter despite a 13 percent fall in profit over the past three months and cited unexpected signs of improvement in the slumping Chinese car market.
The world's biggest maker of industrial bearings reported second-quarter profit fell due to restructuring and impairment costs, though excluding them earnings beat forecasts, aided by cost cuts.
SKF said its second-quarter operating profit fell to 2.54 billion crowns ($270.47 million) from 2.93 billion a year ago, lagging the 2.62 billion forecast in a poll of analysts according to Refinitiv data.
Excluding restructuring and impairment costs, profit fell to 2.86 billion crowns.
SKF - which derives around 70 percent of sales from its industrial business and the rest from autos - has felt the impact of a slump in car markets globally, especially in China, and signs of slowing demand for industrial goods.
The company, which rivals Germany's Schaeffler, said overall organic sales dipped 2 percent in the second quarter, its first quarterly decline in almost three years, hit by a 7 percent fall in its automotive business alone.