Good times continue to roll for the automotive industry. After Ford’s stellar numbers last week, a number of part suppliers have produced better than expected results. One such example is Michigan based Federal Mogul Corporation (NASDAQ:FDML) which has posted a sales increase of 23 per cent in the latest quarter. But the real surprise was the earnings growth with the company managing to post US$49 million profit from last year’s figure of miniscule US$3 million.

Interestingly, traditional growth leaders “emerging markets” have taken a backseat for most US based component producer. FDML also registered its highest geographical sales growth in North America – an astounding 81 per cent jump in sales. It was followed by Asia at 46 per cent and Europe at 31 per cent growth.

"Federal-Mogul's results in the second quarter of 2010 show our ability to deliver strong financial performance by converting incremental revenue to profitability due to our continued focus on efficiently managing our cost base established during 2009", said FDML CEO José Maria Alapont commenting on the results.

As if the market got a hint of excellent results in advance, the stock has already gained over 38 per cent in last month. The same is true for most other tier one suppliers with good financial health. FDML is currently trading at close to US$18 per share, just US$3 shy of its 52 week high. Considering the still early stages of an automotive pullback, there appears to be ample scope for further increase in share prices of FDML and other suppliers.