Tom Johnstone, President and CEO:
"SKF delivered a very strong result in the quarter with better volume and higher manufacturing levels resulting in an operating margin of 11.8%. Demand developed positively during the quarter particularly within the automotive business which adversely affected our price/mix. We saw a very positive development of our business in Asia and Latin America and some improvement in North America. However, Europe still remains weak if we exclude our automotive business.
Going forward into the second quarter we expect demand to be significantly higher than the same quarter last year and slightly higher sequentially. As a result of this demand picture we increased our manufacturing as the first quarter progressed which gave a good effect on our cost absorption, particularly in March. We will keep this manufacturing level during the second quarter.”
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