INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-SKF CEO: environment uncertain, pricing tough

* Sees slight improvement sequentially, but trend not certain

* Maintaining positive price mix in Q4 a tough challenge

* Sees Asia bringing in over 20 pct of group revenue in 2009

* SKF shares trading up 1.8 pct, more than the main market (Adds details, byline)

By Sumeet Chatterjee

BANGALORE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Sweden's SKF (SKFb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest bearings maker, sees an uncertain business environment despite stabilisation in demand in some sectors and markets, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The company expects the revenue contribution from Asia to rise to more than 20 percent in this year from 19 percent last year on growing demand from countries such as China and India, Tom Johnstone said. 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. [ID:nLK302107]

"It is still a very uncertain business environment for us," Johnstone told Reuters in an interview, after inaugurating the company's testing centre in the southern Indian city and technology hub Bangalore. "We see a stabilisation and we see a slight improvement (in demand) sequentially, but it is not certain."

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.

Signs have emerged in recent months that the plunge may have bottomed, with buying resuming now that inventories built up during the boom years have been depleted.