INTERVIEW - Katja Duerrfeld, Continental: Strong growth in China, weak demand in the US and EU

Continental AG specializes in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of tires and automotive equipment. Net sales break down by family of products as follows: - automotive systems (49%): basic brakes (No. 1 worldwide), electronic braking circuits (No. 2 worldwide), chassis components, control systems, etc.; - tires (33.4%): automobile, motorcycle, light, industrial and farm trucks tires, etc.; - technical elastomers (17.6%): products made of rubber (belts, tubing, and hoses), plastic materials for the automotive, railroad, mining, and similar industries. Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Germany (19.1%), Europe (29.4%), North America (26.6%), Asia (20.7%) and others (4.2%).