American Axle Projects FY20 Sales Below Estimates - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting financial results for the fourth quarter on Friday, American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. or AAM (AXL) initiated its sales guidance for the full-year 2020. It also provided 2020-2022 new business backlog.

For fiscal 2020, the company now projects sales in the range of $5.8 billion to $6.0 billion, which includes lower metal market passthroughs to customers at current market rates. North American light vehicle production is expected in a range of 16.3 million to 16.5 million units.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report sales of $6.09 billion for the year.

"In 2020, we are focused on further free cash flow generation and debt reduction while continuing to invest in advanced propulsion technologies to drive future profitable growth for AAM," said David Dauch, AAM's Chairman and CEO.

Providing 2020-2022 new business backlog details, AAM said its gross new and incremental business backlog launching from 2020 - 2022 is estimated at approximately $750 million in future annual sales.

AAM expects the launch cadence of the three-year backlog to be approximately $400 million in 2020, $200 million in 2021 and $150 million in 2022. AAM's updated backlog estimate contemplates the sale of the U.S. iron casting operations completed in December 2019.