Washington - Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International Inc Thursday posted its first quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2008.

The company said it earned 51 million dollars, or 45 cents per share, in the third quarter, reversing a loss of 215 million dollars, or 1.93 dollars per share, a year earlier.

The company's sales were at 4.7 billion dollars, down from 5.5 billion dollars a year ago, a drop it attributed to "significant declines" in vehicle production in both North America and Europe.

In a sharp about-turn this week, US car company General Motors chose to abandon a deal to sell its European subsidiary Opel to Magna.

GM's decision Tuesday provoked sharp anger and labour protests in Germany, where more than half of Opel's 50,000 European jobs are located. The German government had strongly backed Opel's sale to Magna with billions of dollars in state aid.

Thousands of workers at Opel plants in Germany went on strike Thursday, expressing unease over how Detroit-based GM plans to restructure the ailing carmaker and humiliation after a year-long attempt to agree to a sale. (dpa)