Some of the post-COVID heat might be starting to come out of the global new truck sales market with another major manufacturer reporting a slower start to the year.
Daimler Truck has released first quarter figures for its global bus and truck operations and a slowdown in Europe has made an impact.
Order intake fell 15 per cent at Daimler Truck’s Mercedes-Benz business, which focuses primarily on Europe, while in its North American truck business orders rose 30 per cent in the quarter.
Daimler Truck sold 108,911 trucks and buses globally in Q1, a decrease of 13 per cent compared with 125,172 vehicles in the same period in 2023, which the company said reflected an expected normalisation across truck markets.
The Daimler numbers come just days after similar results for rivals, Traton.
Warburg Research analyst Fabio Hoelscher told Reuters the drop in European orders was expected as the market cools off.
“Management appears to have become slightly more cautious than before, based on lower than expected order intake in Q1.”
Interestingly, Daimler’s home market, Germany, led the slowdown, according to CEO Martin Daum.
The boss of Daimler Trucks saying this “depressive sentiment” in Germany was holding back Daimler Truck in Europe.
Despite the slowdown in new truck orders the Daimler Truck still made a healthy profit – 1.21 billion euros ($1.30 billion USD) for the quarter.
North America helped right the ship with that increase in orderts helping lift profits 7% there.
In our market, VFACTS data shows that across the first quarter of 2024 shows Mercedes-Benz Trucks boosted sales by more than 23%, while demand for Fuso and Freightliner came off 24per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
Meantime, production of Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built Buses will continue unimpeded in the U.S.A. after a new wage deal was struck between Daimler and workers.
