The truck builder Daimler Truck intends to significantly increase sales and profits by the end of the decade. The Dax group announced on Tuesday that the company is well on the way to achieving the target set for 2025 of more than 10 percent adjusted return on sales in the industrial business. Ambition for 2030 is a sales growth of 40 to 60 percent compared to 2025 and a return of more than 12 percent. The higher bar, like the current one, applies to the scenario of a favorable market environment. On Monday evening, after the stock exchange closed, Daimler Truck announced higher targets for sales, revenue and profit for the current year and announced a share buyback. The truck manufacturer wants to buy its own shares worth up to two billion euros.
“We are ready to take Daimler Truck to the next level by 2030,” said CEO Martin Daum (63) in Boston on the US east coast. This year, the world market leader for heavy trucks is aiming for an average turnover of 55 billion euros with a return of up to 10 percent. Daimler Truck shares gained more than 2 percent on Tuesday, but then lost value again.
The growth will be driven by the technology strategy with uniform platforms for software and different drive types, more service sales and the market launch of autonomous and emission-free trucks. The Swabians are hoping for three billion euros in sales and more than one billion euros in operating profit from self-driving trucks in 2030. Large quantities based on a uniform technology architecture for diesel and electric drives or software solutions should make the business highly profitable.
Less cyclical dependency
In addition, lower costs and investments stabilized profitability, the Stuttgart group explained. Daimler Truck is less exposed to the ups and downs of the economy than it used to be. In the future, profits should suffer even less from economic downturns. “Active portfolio management” should also contribute to this – as an example of this, Daimler refers to the planned merger the Japanese subsidiary Mitsubishi Fuso with the Toyota division Hino Motors. The planned company, whose name has not yet been decided, will be a major player in Southeast Asia and an important partner in the Daimler truck family, explained Daimler truck boss Daum in May.
The joint project is intended to support the restructuring of the commercial vehicle business. Daimler Truck had recently felt the effects of the great competition in Asia. Last year, adjusted operating profit in the division fell by 60 percent, although sales and revenue increased.