Despite industrywide production disruptions, Gentex Corp. swung to an $86.5 million net profit in the second quarter after a $2.4 million net loss a year earlier.
Revenue surged 86 percent to $428 million.
The automotive mirror supplier said margins rose significantly as business recovered from pandemic-related shutdowns during the same period last year. The company also generated the gains amid customer shutdowns stemming from the global microchip shortage.
The second-quarter net income still trailed the $113.5 million the company posted in the first quarter.
The Michigan supplier’s results, along with strong gains posted by Mexican supplier Nemak this week, signaled that the North American automotive supply chain will be reporting robust sales and profits for the second quarter compared with the same period last year, when much of the industry was shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“As we move through the second half of the year and into 2022, we are encouraged that the overall demand for vehicles and our products should still provide opportunities for the company to continue to outperform the underlying market,” CEO Steve Downing said in a statement Friday.
North American auto-dimming mirror shipments improved 171 percent to 3.4 million units over the year-earlier period. Total shipments surged 98 percent to 10.4 million.
Gentex said light-vehicle production in its primary regions of Europe, North America, Japan, Korea and China increased 36 percent from last year.
Shares in Gentex rose 1.6 percent to close at $32.37 on Friday.
Gentex ranks No. 86 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers, with worldwide parts sales to automakers of $1.65 billion in its 2020 fiscal year.
