Car maker
Daimler increases profit despite slump in sales
The car manufacturer Daimler was able to increase its profit in the third quarter. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The shortage of semiconductors weighed heavily on Daimler’s sales. In terms of profit, however, the automaker is now unexpectedly robust. Expensive top models increased.
The car and truck manufacturer Daimler did surprisingly well in the past quarter despite the massive slump in sales.
Although the company sold significantly fewer cars and trucks, the Stuttgart-based company kept sales almost stable thanks to rising prices – and Daimler was even able to increase its profit significantly. Savings and a strong financial division also resulted in an unexpected increase in the operating result. “We are staying on course to achieve our goals for the year as a whole,” said CFO Harald Wilhelm and spoke of a robust business.
The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Dax group rose by 21 percent to 2.47 billion euros. Sales in the months of July to September were around 40 billion euros at the previous year’s level. Earnings before interest and taxes adjusted for special effects, which the management around CEO Ola Källenius consider to be decisive for the economic performance, rose by four percent to 3.61 billion euros thanks to the strong finance and mobility division. Daimler did better than analysts expected.
The group retained the annual forecasts for the margins in the auto and truck sectors – but is now assuming a slight decline in sales of cars compared to the previous year. In the third quarter, primarily due to the lack of chips, Daimler had to cut production several times and delivered almost a third fewer cars from the Mercedes-Benz brand to customers than a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, the situation around semiconductors is expected to improve somewhat.
The expensive top models such as the S-Class and the Group’s electric cars were able to increase deliveries in the third quarter – among other things, because Mercedes primarily equips the more lucrative cars with the existing electronic semiconductors.
The price environment for car manufacturers is currently favorable, also because of the limited production: High demand and long delivery times have ensured that hardly any discounts need to be given at the moment. This is providing a boost, especially in the business with company cars and car rental companies.
In the case of trucks and buses, which will be spun off under the name of Daimler Truck AG, sales in the third quarter were seven percent above the previous year’s figure. But there were also problems with the delivery of chips in the truck business, especially with the lucrative heavy-duty trucks for which Daimler is the world market leader. Sales fell slightly. Orders for almost 161,825 trucks were received in the third quarter – almost two thirds more than a year ago.