SKF sees volume improvement in Asia, Latam, elsewhere stable

BANGALORE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Sweden's SKF (SKFb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest bearings maker, is seeing sequential improvement in volumes in Asia and Latin America, while Europe and North America are stable, its chief executive said on Wednesday. "We see improvement in some sectors, but it is not a sustained recovery," Chief Executive Tom Johnstone told reporters.

SKF, seen as a bellwether for the manufacturing sector, makes bearings used in products ranging from dishwashers to passenger jets.

The company posted a smaller-than-expected fall in quarterly earnings last month due to cost cuts and offered the first signs it would see a pickup in demand. [ID:nLK302107]

Auto-related sales make up roughly a third of SKF's business. SKF and other manufacturers saw a sharp drop in sales in a matter of weeks last year as the global financial crisis cut off access to credit and sent economies into a deep recession.

But signs have emerged in recent months that the headlong plunge may have hit bottom, with buying resuming now that inventories built up during the boom years have been depleted. (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)