STOCKHOLM, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Sweden's Autoliv said on Friday it expects margins to rise this year, after the world's largest producer of airbags and seatbelts reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter operating profit.

Operating profit adjusted for litigation and other non-recurring costs was $334 million in the three months to end December against $233 million a year before, beating estimates from analysts polled by LSEG of $321 million.

The firm said it expected adjusted operating margin to rise to around 10.5% in 2024 from the 6.6% achieved in 2023, and organic sales growth of around 5%.

"The seasonality of past years is likely to be repeated in 2024, with an expected Q1 adjusted operating margin of around 7%, followed by gradual quarterly improvements," CEO Mikael Bratt said.

While suppliers in the automotive industry like Autoliv have faced high price inflation in recent years, they have been generally successful in passing on significant portions of these costs to their customers.

The steadying of raw material prices and improved availability of semiconductors have also allowed for a gradual recovery of light vehicle production (LVP), in which the company outperformed in all regions in the year, except China.

Autoliv said China had very strong LVP growth for Chinese firms.

Shares in the company were up nearly 3% at 1124 GMT. (Reporting by Marie Mannes; Editing by Stine Jacobsen and Jan Harvey)