BERLIN, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Daimler Truck on Thursday reported a 15% rise in second-quarter profit before interest and tax to 1.01 billion euros, far beating analysts’ expectations thanks to strong demand and positive currency effects.
The German truck manufacturer announced a quarterly turnover of 12.1 billion euros, exceeding the expectations of the six analysts polled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate, who expected 11.8 billion euros.
Daimler Truck maintained its group-wide outlook of an adjusted return of 7-9% and revenue of 48-50 billion euros, but lowered the adjusted return targets for its Trucks business Asia at 1-3%, versus 3-5% previously, due to the impact of supply chain constraints in China in the second quarter.
“Supply and not demand remains the limiting factor,” the company said in a statement, adding that the order book remains high.
According to the company, bottlenecks in the supply chain are expected to ease in the second half of the year and it does not expect production shutdowns despite the lack of natural gas from Russia.
Daimler Truck was less exposed than other truck manufacturers to supply chain disruptions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, in part because, unlike its competitors, it did not source wire harnesses from this country.
Competitors Traton and Iveco reported lower second-quarter profits despite rising revenues due to supply chain issues.
Daimler Truck has repeatedly said it is confident it can pass on rising energy and raw material costs to customers amid strong demand, although chief financial officer Jochen Goetz said the company would reduce its prices again when costs fell. (Report Victoria Waldersee, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)