German defence technology and automotive parts specialist Rheinmetall said Thursday that underlying profit was down last year, due to a government decision to veto a key contract with Russia.

Rheinmetall said in a statement that underlying or operating profit declined to 160 million euros ($183 million) in 2014 from 213 million euros a year earlier.

Sales, on the other hand, increased by 6.0 percent to 4.688 billion euros.

At the beginning of August, the German government stopped a major Rheinmetall contract to provide a fully equipped training camp to Russian forces due to the crisis in Ukraine.

The contract was reportedly valued at 100 million euros.

Nevertheless, Rheinmetall said the order backlog in its defence technology business, amounted to 6.516 billion euros at the end of 2014, an increase of 7.7 percent from the previous year.

Rheinmetall said its automotive sector also "performed very positively and exceeded all the major key figures of the previous year."

Rheinmetall is scheduled to publish its detailed 2014 figures on March 19.

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RHEINMETALL