STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux (ST:ELUXb) said on Thursday it had been able to offset pressures from higher raw materials, trade tariffs and currency with price hikes so far in 2019, and that it also expected to do so for the full year.
The company, a rival of Whirlpool
"In the first half of 2019, price has fully offset this headwind and we expect that to be the case also for 2019 as a whole," Electrolux CEO Jonas Samuelson said in a statement, while adding a note of caution:
"The uncertainty on trade tariffs continues to impact our visibility".
Electrolux's ability to cope with pressures from the China-U.S. trade war via price hikes and other efficiency measures has been a key concern for analysts and investors over the past year.
The company affirmed its full-year market outlook for North America and Europe, its two biggest markets, saying it expected North America to be slightly negative and Europe slightly positive.
Operating earnings at the owner of brands such as Electrolux, Frigidaire, AEG and Anova, rose to 1.62 billion Swedish crowns (139.12 million pounds) from 827 million a year earlier, roughly matching the mean forecast of 1.60 billion crowns in a poll of analysts based on Refinitiv data.
Earnings in the year-ago quarter were 1.65 billion when adjusting for non-recurring items.