SKF Nine-month report 2012


Tom Johnstone, President and CEO:
“The macro economic development and increasing uncertainty which was evident
during the last few months has clearly influenced our business. Our sales
weakened as we went through the quarter and this was mainly seen in many of our
industrial markets as well as in the European and particularly in the Asian
region. We took additional steps to reduce our production to both meet this
lower demand and to reduce our inventories. With the background of the
challenging market environment the Group delivered a very good performance and
particularly a very strong cash flow. We managed to adjust our cost base in the
quarter and will further increase our actions on this going forward.
In addition we took some important steps to strengthen SKF in supporting the
longer term growth markets and industries. We completed the acquisition of GBC,
which widens our ability to serve our markets. In conjunction with celebrating
100 years of business in China, we opened our new factory in Jinan, had the
ground breaking for our new warehouse near Shanghai and also announced a new
campus close to Shanghai. We also opened three new SKF Solution Factories, in
USA, Romania and Italy.
For the Group overall we expect the weaker demand trend to continue in the
fourth quarter and demand to be lower year over year. We will run our production
below sales to enable us to reduce our inventories and to support our cash
flow.”

Key figures                    Q3 2012  Q3 2011  YTD 2012  YTD 2011
Net sales, SEKm                15,486   16,545   49,591    49,959
Operating profit, SEKm         1,913    2,479    6,106     7,606
Operating margin, %            12.4     15.0     12.3      15.2
Profit before taxes, SEKm      1,734    2,345    5,516     7,109
Net profit, SEKm               1,266    1,656    3,867     5,019
Basic earnings per share, SEK  2.71     3.52     8.22      10.72

Net sales change in  Volume  Price/mix  Structure  Currency effect  Total
SEK, attributable
to:
Q3 2012              -5.0%   0.5%       0.8%       -2.7%            -6.4%
Year to date 2012    -3.0%   1.4%       0.2%       0.6%             -0.8%

Sales for the Group in the third quarter were lower year over year (in local
currency excluding structure). In Europe they decreased by 7% and in Asia by
11%. In North America they increased by 5% and in Latin America by 8%. In Middle
East and Africa they were relatively unchanged.

Manufacturing in the third quarter was significantly lower year over year.

Outlook for the fourth quarter of 2012

Demand compared to the fourth quarter last year
The demand for SKF’s products and services is expected to be lower for the Group
and for Europe. For Asia it is expected to be slightly lower and for North
America and Latin America relatively unchanged. The demand is expected to be
lower for Industrial Strategic Industries and Industrial Regional Sales and
Service and relatively unchanged for Automotive.

Demand compared to the third quarter 2012
The demand for SKF’s products and services is expected to be slightly lower for
the Group, for all the business areas and for Europe, Asia and North America.
For Latin America demand is expected to be relatively unchanged.

Manufacturing
Manufacturing is expected to be lower year on year and slightly lower compared
to third quarter.

Gothenburg, 17 October 2012
Aktiebolaget SKF
(publ.)

Tom Johnstone
President and CEO

_____________________________________________________________

AB SKF is required to disclose the information provided herein pursuant to the
Securities
Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was
submitted
for publication at 13.00 on 17 October 2012.
_____________________________________________________________

A teleconference will be held on 17 October 2012 at 14.00 CET, 13.00 (UK), 08.00
(US):
SE: +46 (0)8 506 307 79
UK: +44 (0)844 571 8957
US: +1 866 682 8490

You will find all information regarding SKF Nine-month results 2012 on the IR
website.
investors.skf.com/quarterlyreporting
Further information can be obtained from:

Ingalill Östman, Group Communications
tel: +46-31-3373260, mobile: +46-706-973260, e-mail: ingalill.ostman@skf.com

Marita Björk, Investor Relations
tel: +46-31-3371994, mobile: +46-705-181994, e-mail: marita.bjork@skf.com
SKF is a leading global supplier of
bearings (http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home/products?contentId=876709&lang=en),
seals (http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home/products?contentId=238358&lang=en),
mechatronics (http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home/products?contentId=447144&lang=
e 
n), lubrication systems (http://www.skf.com/portal/skf_lub?lang=en), and
services (http://www.skf.com/portal/skf_lub/home/services?contentId=867934&lang=
e 
n) which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services,
engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in more than 130
countries and has 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2011
were SEK 66,216 million and the number of employees was 46,039. www.skf.com

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