FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Shares in Schaeffler followed the US hype surrounding space technology on Wednesday. The stock price surged by as much as 16 percent to 11.62 euros, approaching its annual high of nearly 12 euros, which in January marked its highest level since 2018. The gain was last holding at 13 percent, sufficient to secure the top spot on the firm MDax index of mid-cap stocks.

Schaeffler intends to manufacture so-called reaction wheels - flywheels used for satellite stabilization - for the US company Spire Global. This move has struck a chord with investors, as the current frenzy surrounding space stocks in the US is now benefiting Schaeffler as well.

The automotive and industrial supplier aims to reduce its dependence on the car industry, seeking to play a role in a second trending sector alongside humanoid robotics. The components produced for Spire are essential for keeping satellites on course and correctly positioned in orbit. Over the next five years, the company aims to generate a sales volume of 250 million euros with the Americans. Spire is expected to become the first major customer for these aerospace ambitions.

In the US, sector sentiment was further fueled the previous day by NASA awarding contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for lunar missions. However, significant speculative value has long been priced into space stocks there ahead of a rumored mega-IPO of Elon Musk's company SpaceX. On Tuesday, the US television network CNBC suggested that Musk could be working toward combining SpaceX with the electric car manufacturer Tesla. This pushed Tesla shares up by more than two percent in New York pre-market trading on Wednesday.

The space rally in the United States is epitomized by stocks such as Redwire, Firefly, York Space, and Arxis, as well as satellite communication providers like Viasat and AST SpaceMobile. Shares in Redwire, a provider of space infrastructure technology, climbed by double-digit percentages again in pre-market trading on Wednesday. Within a single week, they had already seen their value increase by half./tih/la/jha/