Volkswagen's H1 profit up strongly at $2.4 bn

BERLIN: Automaker Volkswagen AG says its first-half net earnings surged to euro1.82 billion ($2.4 billion) as strong demand from China helped pushed sales higher.

Volkswagen's profit for the January-June period was up from euro494 million a year earlier.

The company didn't immediately offer second-quarter figures in a statement Thursday.

Volkswagen says first-half revenue was up 20.7 percent to euro61.81 billion from last year's euro51.2 billion.

The company says that ``the dynamic growth in ... revenue and earnings in the first half of 2010 will not continue undiminished in the second half.''

But it says it still expects revenue and operating profit to be ``significantly higher'' this year than in 2009.