Daimler’s Revenue Rises in Third Quarter
German auto and truck maker Daimler AG reported a 10% increase in third-quarter revenue, and net profit increased as vehicle sales climbed 7% from last year.
Net earnings rose to 2.79 billion euros ($3.53 billion) from 1.9 billion a year earlier. Revenue improved to 33.1 billion euros ($41.92 billion).
The company sold 637,400 cars and commercial vehicles worldwide in the quarter.
“We are growing profitably and look to the future with optimism also beyond the full year,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said.
Revenue in the truck segment increased 6% to 8.5 billion euro ($10.77 billion). Daimler Trucks posted a profit of 588 million euro ($744.83 million).
Truck sales in the United States, Canada and Mexico increased 25% to 43,900, but sales in Western Europe declined 11% to 14,800 and in Asia fell 6% to 38,600 on a sharp drop in demand in Indonesia.
“The main driver of the earnings growth was the ongoing very positive development of unit sales in the Nafta region,” Daimler said in a statement about sales in the region.
Truck orders in the third quarter declined 5.6%, and the company forecast demand in Europe to drop 10%, versus an earlier outlook of a 5% decline. Demand in Brazil is expected to shrink by 15% instead of 10%, Bloomberg News reported.
“They’re not raising exuberant expectations, truck orders are down and they signaled that they won’t pay a special dividend” even as cash on hand jumped, Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt, Germany-based analyst with Bankhaus Metzler told Bloomberg. “That damps any euphoria. But the general picture is good, with strong S-Class deliveries and high truck sales in North America.”
Daimler sells the Freightliner and Western Star truck brands in North America, as well as the Detroit brand of diesel engines, transmissions and axles.
