Daimler Trucks to Return to Profit

Being one of, if not the largest truck manufacturer in the world, Daimler Trucks felt the full force of the economic meltdown of 2009. With the truck market dropping to half in the terrible year that was 2009, Daimler Trucks had only several markets on its side, led, of course, by China.

Things seem to have changed however in 2010. The figures reported by the truck maker so far leave room for high hopes. Having sold about 30 percent more trucks than it did last year, Daimler Trucks announced today it expects EUR1 billion ($1.3 billion) in earnings this year.

The good news for Daimler were revealed during the 2010 IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Hanover, Germany, where Daimler is displaying 60 trucks, vans, and buses. Together with what it expects from the current year, Daimler also announced sales increases of in between 68 percent (South America) and 129 percent (Eastern Europe).

“These figures make us optimistic. Our incoming orders for August are up by 65 percent - this shows that the figures are not a temporary phenomenon,” said Andreas Renschler, Daimler board member responsible for Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses.

For the near future, the biggest growth is expected to come, as it did until now, from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and the Next 11 countries: Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, and Vietnam.

It is the BRIC countries where Daimler is making a run for it with the help of joint ventures like the ones it has with Beiqui Foton or Kamaz.