Daimler Says Its 1Q Truck Sales Fall; Sees ‘Slight Increase’ in Full-Year Sales
Daimler AG said Wednesday its first-quarter North American truck sales slipped 3%, while its worldwide truck unit sales fell by 6%.
Daimler Trucks expects “a slight increase in unit sales in the full year,” but said the “continued weak state of the economy will probably lead to a rather modest or even negative development of unit sales in a number of core markets” in the first half of the year.
Daimler Trucks’ first-quarter earnings before interest and taxes declined to $150 million, from $490 million a year ago.
Worldwide trucks revenue declined 5% to about $9.1 billion. Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG reports its earnings in euros.
The maker of Freightliner and Western Star brand trucks said it sold 26,641 trucks in North America in the quarter.
Latin America sales excluding Mexico jumped 31% to about 13,000, while Asia sales dropped 12% to just over 35,000 units.
Daimler said its earnings were reduced by business development expenses in India and China, product adjustments in North America and Europe, and higher warranty costs.
Daimler AG, which includes the Mercedes-Benz line of automobiles, cut its full-year profit outlook from its previous EBIT forecast of $10.6 billion, which was equal to last year, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s EBIT fell 56% in the quarter.
“Many markets developed worse than expected for economic reasons, especially Western Europe,” CEO Dieter Zetsche said in a statement.
