Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 22, 2022 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Josh O'Berski - Director, IR

Steve Downing - President and CEO

Neil Boehm - VP, Engineering and CTO

Kevin Nash - VP, Finance and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Luke Junk - Baird

David Whiston - Morningstar

James Picariello - BNP Paribas Exane

David Kelley - Jefferies

John Murphy - Bank of America

Josh Nichols - B. Riley

Ryan Brinkman - JPMorgan

Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Gentex First Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Josh O'Berski

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Gentex Corporation first quarter 2022 earnings release conference call. I am Josh O'Berski, Gentex Director of Investor Relations and I am joined by Steve Downing, President and CEO; Neil Boehm, Vice President of Engineering and CTO; and Kevin Nash, Vice President of Finance and CFO.

This call is live on the Internet and can be reached by going to the Gentex website and at ir.gentex.com. All contents of this conference call are the property of Gentex Corporation and may not be copied, published, reproduced, rebroadcast, retransmitted, transcribed, or otherwise redistributed. Gentex Corporation will hold responsible and liable any party for any damages incurred by Gentex Corporation, with respect to any unauthorized use of the contents of this conference call.

This conference call contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the Gentex Safe Harbor statement included in the Gentex reports first quarter 2022 financial results press release from earlier this morning, and as always, shown on the Gentex website. Your participation in this conference call implies consent to these terms.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Steve Downing, who will get us started today. Steve?

Steve Downing

Thank you, Josh.

For the first quarter of 2022, the company reported net sales of $468.3 million, compared to net sales of $483.7 million in the first quarter of 2021. For the first quarter of 2022, global light vehicle production decreased approximately 5% when compared to the first quarter of 2021. Additionally, light vehicle production in the company's primary markets of North America, Europe, and Japan, Korea, declined by 11% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

These declines were primarily a result of the ongoing industry-wide component shortages and global supply chain constraints. The company has been dealing with the impacts of component shortages and supply chain constraints since the beginning of 2021, which is why our forecast for the beginning of this year was more conservative than the original IHS Markit estimates for light vehicle production.