Daimler Truck posts 40% drop in quarterly profit, narrows full-year guidance

By Amir Orusov and Simon Ferdinand Eibach

(Reuters) -Daimler Truck posted a bigger-than-expected 40% drop in third-quarter operating profit on Friday and said full-year profit is expected towards the lower end of its forecast range, as the North American market was muted despite some recovery.

CFO Eva Scherer said in a conference call that adjusted operating profit is now expected at the lower end of the 3.6 billion euros to 4.1 billion euros ($4.2 billion to $4.8 billion) range, and revenue at the midpoint.

Scherer confirmed the negative net impact of U.S. import tariffs in 2025 to be in the low three-digit million euro range.

The company's adjusted earnings before interest and taxes came in at 716 million euros for the quarter, missing the 729 million euros expected in a company-compiled consensus.

Incoming orders of 93,923 units were at the previous year's level, backed by a positive momentum in Europe and a recovery in North America from very low levels in the second quarter, the company said in a statement.

European truck manufacturers were facing declining demand in North America due to weaker freight activity and market uncertainty caused by import tariffs.

Daimler Truck's Trucks North America segment saw a 64% drop in operating profit to 257 million euros, but beat consensus expectations of 240 million euros.

However, its Mercedes-Benz Trucks business achieved adjusted EBIT of 319 million euros, missing consensus expectations of 329 million euros.

CARBON EMISSION REGULATION

Daimler Truck can achieve the 2030 carbon emission targets, but cannot influence the availability of infrastructure, its CFO said.

"When the infrastructure is not there, we should not be held accountable if we have done our homework as an industry and have invested billions of euros into our electric truck portfolio," Scherer said.

European truck manufacturers including Traton, Volvo and Daimler Truck have been urging the European Union to ease carbon emission regulations for the sector.

GERMAN FISCAL STIMULUS YET TO DELIVER

Scherer also said there had been no positive effects from the German fiscal stimulus package yet.

"Let's hope that in next year and the beginning of next year, we see a bit of movement there," she said.

The company saw moderate quarterly order intake momentum in Germany, while in France, the UK, Poland and Spain the order momentum was strong, Scherer said.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by Amir Orusov and Simon Ferdinand Eibach; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mrigank Dhaniwala)