SKF Italy Announced Results For The Fiscal Year 2005

SKF Industrie SpA (Italy, a division of SKF AB, Sweden) announced results for the fiscal and calendar year 2005. Sales were 847 million euros, up 2.4% over 2004. Net income reached 60 million euros, the highest in over a decade, and double and triple what they had been in recent years. Giuseppe Donato, SKF Industrie Managing Director, said Italy's sales and profit improvements were directly related to higher production volumes, and that the results should continue to improve. Part of that manufacturing gain is spurred by new application wins, such as X-Tracker wheel bearing hub assembly units destined for the 2006 Cadillac STS-V to be produced in Airasca. X-Tracker is an asymmetric hub unit; the outer bearing is larger and has more rolling elements than the inner. The decision to manufacture the Cadillac wheel bearing unit in Italy -- rather than the United States -- has been privately criticized by several SKF insiders as a political maneuver; SKF's other X-Tracker applications, the 2005+ Dodge Dakota and 2004+ Dodge Durango, are produced in the United States. As part of a personnel reorganization, Mr. Donato is moving to the position of Senior VP and Advisor to the CEO, primarily overseeing merger and acquisition activities. SKF currently has nine manufacturing facilities across Italy, employing more than 4,500 people. The company directly supplies more than 130 automotive and industrial bearing distribution companies in Italy.