CAR parts and engineering firm GKN yesterday said last month’s disaster in Japan had impacted on profits, but was not expected to derail its recovery.

The UK-based firm, which supplies parts to Nissan’s Sunderland plant among others, said profits increased 42 per cent to £119m in the first quarter of this year.

GKN said it had made strong progress in the quarter, as it built on last year’s performance when it returned to the black after being badly hit by the global economic meltdown.

However, the firm, which operates in 31 countries and whose customers also include Nissan and Mitsubishi in Japan, said the disruption from the earthquake and tsunami a month ago cost it £3m.

GKN, which operates three factories and one research and development facility in Japan, signalled that the catastrophe would cause further disruption for its business because the impact on car manufacturing there had caused knock-on effects in Europe and North America because of a shortage of parts.

However, it estimated its customers would return to full production by the end of May and its Driveline business, that produces the components and makes driveshafts for almost half of new cars, saw profits increase by 35 per cent to £50m, despite the disruption.

The Redditch-based company benefited from buoyant car markets in North America, India and China, while sales rose 14 per cent to £1.5bn.

The company also said it had sold its share of a jointventure driveshaft sales and distribution business in Japan for £8m, which would hit sales by about £30m in the short-term.

It hoped the deal would allow Driveline to build its business as an independent operator in the country in the future.

The group’s powder metal technology arm, which provides components for manufacturers, saw sales increase by 21 per cent to £217m, while its Land Systems arm, which supplies products to heavy industry and agriculture, was up 27 per cent.

Sales at its aerospace arm, which makes fuselage, fan blades and cockpit windshields were flat, but an improvement on last year when they declined by two per cent.

The group has stripped out costs with a major redundancy programme since November 2008, which saw 15 factory closures and 7,000 of its 42,000 staff go, including 560 in the UK – although employee numbers have since climbed to 40,000.

GKN, which also operates sites at Sutton Coldfield, Telford and Edgware in Middlesex, as well as in 30 other countries, added to its UK personnel in 2008 after buying Airbus’s Filton site and now has 6,000 UK employees.