Daimler Trucks’ fourth-quarter earnings before interest and taxes rose 5% to 422 million euros ($569.7 million), reflecting a 22% increase in worldwide truck sales, parent company Daimler AG said.
Fourth-quarter worldwide truck sales rose to 129,404, with strength in North America and other world markets, Daimler said. Revenue rose 20% to 8.24 billion euros ($10.8 billion).
Daimler makes Freightliner and Western Star brand trucks in North America.
Recovery in truck sales in the North America “will probably continue” in 2012 as fleets replace aging equipment, Germany-based Daimler said.
“The successfully implemented optimization and repositioning of the business operations of the subsidiaries Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. and Daimler Trucks North America had sustained positive effects also in 2011,” the company’s statment said, offset by 102 million euros ($133 million) in charges related to Japan’s earthquake and an asset writedown.
For the full year, truck sales and revenue each rose 20%, to 425,800 units and 28.8 billion euros ($37.6 billion) respectively. During 2011, earnings before interest and taxes rose 41% to 1.88 billion euros ($2.5 billion).
