STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Car Group kept its full-year sales target on Wednesday despite a slowdown in China after strong European demand helped power a 71 percent jump in first-half profit.
Concerns over slowing growth and share price turmoil have clouded the outlook for China in recent months and hit car sales, raising questions about expansion in the world's biggest auto market.
Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson told Reuters the carmaker still expected to reach sales of close to 500,000 cars this year with Europe and improvements in the U.S compensating for slower growth in China.
"We have Europe which is currently in strong growth and we have the U.S., which is going from a problem situation into growth, Samuelsson said. "That, I think, shows that a normalisation in China is something we can live with."
The Sweden-based company, bought by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. from Ford Motor Co . (N:F) in 2010, said first-half operating earnings rose to 1.66 billion Swedish crowns ($194.66 million) from 968 million a year earlier.
"We have been implementing a transformation plan since 2010 and this financial result demonstrates that we continue to be on the right track," Samuelsson said in a statement.
"For the full year we expect a substantial increase in profits."
Volvo is banking on strong growth in China to help foot the bill for billions of dollars of investment in planned new models, but also needs growth elsewhere to meet a goal of nearly doubling sales to 800,000 cars in 2020.
Samuelsson said the group aimed to grow at least in line with the premium car market in China this year, as it starts shipments there of its new flagship model, the XC90 SUV.
Revenue at the company, one of Sweden's biggest employers though a minnow in a global auto industry dominated by players from Japan, the United States and Germany, rose to 75.2 billion crowns from 67.0 billion.
The year-ago figures for both earnings and revenue were restated to reflect Volvo's consolidation of industrial entities in China at the turn of the year.
($1 = 8.5275 Swedish crowns)