Dana Reports 33 per cent Drop in Income

Dana Corporation’s third-quarter results show a 33 per cent drop in net income. The corporation received $40 million compared with $61 million in the same part of 2003. The company achieved third-quarter sales of $2.1 billion, compared with $1.9 billion the year before.

According to the company net income was hit by unexpected charges. Any gains the company made were offset by charges associated with the sale of Dana’s automotive aftermarket businesses, namely the reversal of an anticipated tax benefit. The company says that this will have no further affect on its figures after November.

“Setting aside taxes, it was an otherwise disappointing quarter, largely because of the increasing cost of raw materials,” said Dana chairman and CEO Mike Burns.”The increase in steel costs alone totalled $22 million after tax, net of recoveries from our customers. We had expected that the bottom-line impact of the commodity price increases would be offset by the stronger performance in our heavy-vehicle business and continuing cost-reduction efforts,” he added. “But, the magnitude of the raw material increases, coupled with a decrease in light-vehicle production volumes, hit us harder than expected.”