Volkswagen saw after-tax earnings fall by 20% in the first half of the year, to 8.5 billion euros ($9.45 billion), as the automaker tries to engineer a rebound in China.
The decline from the same period last year was due in part to a 2.5 billion euro non-cash loss on raw materials hedging in financial markets. Companies use such market strategies to offset risk and insure themselves against rapid changes in the prices of raw materials.
