After A Strong Q2, GM CFO Expects Back Half To Be Even Better

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) surprised the Street on Thursday by declaring much better than expected second-quarter numbers. The company reported double its U.S. EBIT year-over-year to the tune of $2.8 billion.

General Motors CFO Chuck Stevens, was on CNBC recently to weigh in on the earnings.

'Unplanned' Strength In U.S. And China

"Overall, the translation of non U.S.-based currencies was worth about $2.2 billion...If you exclude that, our revenue was up close to a billion dollars year-over-year, with strength really in North America," Stevens said. "Great results in the quarter; may have surprised some people. But strength, importantly in North America and China, very much unplanned as expected.

"And we would expect the second half to be better than the first half."

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Moderate Industry Growth In China

Steven was asked if GM is also witnessing a slowdown in China. He replied, "We are seeing a more moderate industry growth, more challenging macro environment in China. Despite that, our second-quarter and first-half results continue to be strong, half of a billion dollars of equity incoming greater than 10 percent margin.

"We have been proactively addressing the issues in China, the market issues in China by SUV, better mix and better cost efficiency and we would expect to sustain our performance through the rest of the year in a more challenging environment."

Strong Demand For Pickups

On the demand for pickup trucks in U.S., Stevens said, "Our pickup share in the second quarter was up close to 3 percentage points on a year-over-year basis. So, we continue to see a lot of strong demand for full-sized pickups, SUVs and crossovers."

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