Daimler Trucks Expects Large Sales, Earnings Growth in 2014

Daimler AG’s truck unit expects to increase sales and profit in 2014, which eventually will help it reach a medium-term goal of an 8% return on sales, its top executive said.

“We began the new year as we expected,” Wolfgang Bernhard, head of Daimler Trucks, said Feb. 24 at a Stuttgart, Germany, press conference, according to Bloomberg News. Deliveries increased everywhere except in Latin America, he said.

Bernhard said Daimler is predicting “significant” sales growth and a “substantial” increase in earnings before interest and taxes in 2014. “I’m therefore optimistic that we will remain on course for success in 2014 and move a good step closer towards achieving our medium-term targets,” he said.

Daimler Trucks focused much of its effort the past two years on revising models for a new set of European emissions standards that took effect this year. It will focus more on profitability in 2014, Bernhard said.

The truck unit had a 5.2% return on sales in 2013, down from 5.4% in 2012, Bloomberg reported.