Upsurge in sales for Daimler AG

Daimler AG, the automotive behemoth based in Germany, has seen released figures for the quarter that show an upsurge in demand for Mercedes trucks, with the current relative weakness of the Euro driving higher exports. The operating profit for the second quarter was reported to be €2.1 billion, which represents a remarkable turn around from the same time last year, which showed a $1 billion loss. The difference in sales revenues between this quarter, and the same quarter last year was €5.5 billion, with the revenues being €25.1 billion and €19.6 billion respectively. The majority of the profits were form the Mercedes cars division, with Benz trucks also performing strongly.

The auto division recorded sales of €14 billion, with many sales occurring in China and the United States. Auto analyst Juergen Pieper also highlighted, an advantageous product mix as well as better price penetration and positive exchange effects as the euro declined in value against other major currencies. Pieper, who works Metzler Bank, also said, A lot of positive things are coming together. It is almost a boom in premium cars this year, double-digit growth for these products. We had very positive comments from BMW this week and we have the same now from Daimler, he noted, with makers of high-end cars almost back at levels of profitability seen before the global economic crisis.

Daimler also implemented a variety of cost cutting measures in its truck division, which is the largest producer of heavy vehicles in the world. The full second quarter results are to be published on the 27th of July, and BHF Bankk analyst Aleksej Wunrau said, We can expect a very nice upward rrevision, before adding that his own predictions had been surpassed by 10 to 15 percent.

It has also been announced that Daimler are to embark upon a joint venture with Foton Motor in China. The growth of the market in China, now the world's largest, is huge. The trends also look good for Daimler, with Pieper noting, Especially in Asia, we are coming back to a trend towards bigger cars and bigger engines.