April 17 (Reuters) - Forvia, the European car parts maker born from Faurecia's takeover of Hella, on Monday said its first-quarter sales growth outpaced global car production even as uncertainty over semiconductor supply persisted.

The automotive sector has been hit by several supply disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, including a global chip shortage that has hit production.

"We continue to have a reduction in the number of shortages that can occur and the number of shortage instances, but it is not eliminated," finance chief Olivier Durand told journalists. He added the blockages were mostly related to analog semiconductors.

Durand said the gradual improvement seen in the quarter was in line with Forvia's expectations, but the overall situation was still difficult.

Forvia, which sells seats, dashboards and fuel systems to carmakers, recorded sales of 6.64 billion euros ($7.29 billion) in the first quarter, up from 5.15 billion a year earlier.

It said the numbers excluded Faurecia's SAS Cockpit Modules arm which it agreed to sell in February.

Organic sales growth of 17.6% "significantly outperformed" global car production, CEO Patrick Koller said in a statement, with all of Forvia's main regions – EMEA, Americas and Asia – outpacing their geographies.

Worldwide automotive production grew 2.7% in the same period, according to the company.

The group said the growth was helped by an additional month of Hella consolidation after it closed the acquisition early last year.

Forvia, which in February said it planned to mitigate the impact of inflation in 2023 through existing contractual pass-through policies and continued negotiations with customers, also saw a positive impact related to inflation of around 240 basis points in the quarter.

The company confirmed its 2023 and medium-term targets.

($1 = 0.9106 euros) (Reporting by Lina Golovnya and Diana Mandiá in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi and Jason Neely)