BERLIN (Reuters).-Despite Bosch’s stated intention to make a profit this year, the German automotive supplier said it is not able to forecast with certainty due to political and economic uncertainties.

Accordingly, it will have to pass prices increases onto its customers. The company cited already-high energy costs and high raw materials costs which were only exacerbated due to the events in Ukraine.

Markus Forschner, Bosch’s chief finance officer stated that the burden of our results is increasing significantly due to sharp increases in energy and raw material costs.

Bosch’s core Mobility Solutions Division is especially under pressure. The steel price in 2019 was three times that of 2020. This will likely not be changing soon.

Bosch saw its core Mobility Solutions business grow by 7.6% to 45.3 billion euro last year. However, the company generated only 0.7% operating returns after posting losses in previous years.

“It is not just the automakers that must pass on rising prices, but also suppliers such as ourselves.”

Markus Heyn (head of Mobility Solutions) stated that talks about price hikes have been ongoing for some time now and that he believed Bosch would reach an agreement with customers.

Due to the favorable exchange rate and increased prices, Bosch Group is expecting sales growth exceeding 6% in the current year. In 2021, they have sales of close to 79 Billion Euros ($83.14Billion), and an expected return of 3-4 percent for 2022.

($1 = 0.9502 euros)