Besides PM, Driveline sales were up 12% and Land Systems sales were up 24%. The company won around US$2.8 billion of contract extensions, new programme wins and work scope expansions in aerospace and a a 74% win rate on driveshafts and important wins in all-wheel-drive (AWD), transaxle and eDrive products. It also agreed to acquire Stromag, a market leading engineer of industrial power management components, and Getrag’s driveline products business, to create the leading global supplier of AWD driveline products. “GKN has continued to make strong progress both in terms of financial performance and in building the future of our global market-leading businesses," said Sir Kevin Smith, Chief Executive of GKN plc. "The first half trading environment has seen strong market outperformance for GKN’s Driveline, Powder Metallurgy and Land Systems businesses." GKN suggests that in the automotive market, external forecasts suggest that global light vehicle production should reach almost 78 million vehicles in 2011, an increase of 4%, with the strongest growth in India, continuing improvement in North America and Europe and slower growth in China. Because its PM division has a limited exposure to Japanese OEMs it will not be affected by recovery in that area and therefore its sales are expected to be lower than the first half in the seasonally weaker second half.
