Traton is sticking to its full-year targets thanks to a good performance in the third quarter. The VW commercial vehicle subsidiary wants to continue to earn an adjusted operating margin before interest and taxes of 5 to 6 percent, as CFO Annette Danielski (56) said on Friday in Munich.
In the first nine months, Traton achieved a margin of 4.7 percent with a slight increase in adjusted consolidated operating profit to EUR 1.35 billion. The group’s turnover grew by almost a third to 28.5 billion euros. Traton has recorded clearly positive price and mix effects as well as a service business that continues to grow strongly, which contributes a good fifth to total sales
The increase in sales is also due to the first-time inclusion of the acquired US brand Navistar, which was not part of the group in the first six months of 2021.
Order backlog lasts for one year
When accepting orders, the company continues to be restrictive, it said. Order intake for trucks fell by 9 percent to 210,323 vehicles in the first nine months. “Currently, our order backlog extends up to a year into the future,” said Traton CEO Christian Levin (55).
Because of the bottlenecks in parts, the Traton brands MAN, Navistar and Scania only had limited orders for trucks in the order books. According to the company, this approach should also ensure that the rising costs of raw materials, energy, supplier parts and logistics are taken into account.