* Sees 18 difficult months ahead for industry
* Expects drop in activity in fourth quarter
* Shares up 6.57 percent at 1440 GMT (Updates with CEO comments)
PARIS, July 23 (Reuters) - French car equipment supplier Plastic Omnium on Thursday said the financial troubles at General Motors Corp, Chrysler and Saab Automobile had not affected its interim earnings.
Plastic Omnium, which supplies parts to automobile groups including Peugeot and Renault, had consolidated net profit of 8 million euros in the six months to end-June, compared with 2.5 million a year earlier. This was due to cost cuts, lower capital expenditure and working capital.
Shares in Plastic Omnium were up 6.57 percent at 1440 GMT, against a CAC-40 index up 1.54 percent.
Its net debt was 440 million euros by end-June with net debt-to-equity of 99 percent. This compared with net debt of 560 million and debt-to-equity of 128 percent at end-December.
Revenues for the second half were due to come in lower than in the first half, Plastic Omnium said in a statement, with a slowdown in its automobile division expected despite signs of an upturn in production by car makers.
"We expect the third quarter to be above the first and second quarters, and we see a significant drop in the fourth quarter," said Chief Executive Laurent Burelle.
"Today we think that we are at a low in terms of volume, and we think this low will last 18 months, in other words the second half of 2009 and the whole of 2010."
Heavy turbulence in the car industry put pressure on revenue, which fell by 19 percent in the first half to 1.18 billion euros, Plastic Omnium said in a statement.
The production of passenger cars and trucks plummeted globally by 25 to 50 percent in the first half, with European customers either delaying or reducing their capital spending and operating expenses, the firm added.
Chrysler entered bankruptcy in April, while General Motors filed for court protection on June 1. The new GM emerged from bankruptcy 40 days later, as a leaner automaker pledging to win back consumers and pay back U.S. taxpayers.
At least 15 auto parts suppliers have filed for bankruptcy or had their assets seized by creditors in 2009, according to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, which represents the industry in the U.S. (Reporting by Sophie Taylor, Gilles Guillaume and Helen Massy-Beresford, editing by Marcel Michelson and David Cowell)