US truck-maker Paccar has reported a 16 per cent increase in third-quarter earnings, which has been boosted by increased truck sales in an improving North American market and slowly recovering European market.
Paccar delivered 39,400 trucks between July and September, which is an increase just shy of 6 per cent compared with the third quarter ast year.
The biggest jump came from Europe, which saw deliveries jump 21 per cent to 11,100 trucks.
“Our DAF customers in Europe are benefiting from improved economic growth, low interest rates, strong freight activity and the excellent operating efficiency of the DAF Euro 6 range of trucks,” PACCAR CEO Ron Armstrong said in a statement.
“DAF increased production at its Eindhoven truck assembly factory to record rates in the fourth quarter (last year) to meet customer demand for our industry-leading DAF vehicles,” said Armstrong.
Paccar delivered 24,200 trucks in the U.S. and Canada, up 3 per cent on the third quarter last year.
Other markets including Australia – where Paccar is heavy duty market leader – Mexico and South America saw 4,100 trucks delivered a rise of close to 11 per cent compared to the same period in 2014.
For the third quarter, Paccar reported a profit equivalent to $AUD 605.3 million or $AUD1.69 a share, which is up from $AUD 521.37 million, or $AUD1.46 a share, in the same period in 2014.
This is the second-best quarter in the company’s 110-year history following its record profit of $AUD627.8 million in the second quarter this year.
While truck deliveries were up and profit was higher, total revenue dropped two per cent to $AUD4.85 billion compared with $AUD6.80 billion last year.
PACCAR says this was due to Europe’s growing market and the effect of foreign exchange rates.
Paccar is one of several heavy- and medium-duty truck producers which have been under investigation by the European Commission since January 2011.
Last November the commission sent a “statement of objections” to each company, informing them of its suspicions of anti-competitive practices.
The commission indicated that it will seek to impose significant fines on those manufacturers, but Paccar said it is unable to estimate the potential fine at this time