Daimler Truck Sees ’22 Growth Around 15% in North America

March 25, 2022

The company’s executives say they may need to lift prices again but see strong demand holding up.

The leaders of Daimler Truck Holding AG expect their record backlog and ongoing efficiency gains to improve the company’s performance well into 2023, with very strong demand for the company’s Freightliner and Western Star brands in North America prominently pitching in.

Daimler Truck’s North American business in 2021 posted sales of about $17.5 billion versus $15.4 billion the year before. Adjusted EBITDA was about $1.6 billion, up about 40% from the year before thanks both to rising sales – a little more than 162,000 units versus nearly 140,000 in 2020 – and higher prices. Globally, Daimler Truck earned adjusted EBITDA of about $2.8 billion on revenues of more than $44 billion.

For 2022, the Daimler team is forecasting North American unit sales of 175,000 to 195,000 and an adjusted return on equity of 10% to 12%. The company – which spun out of Daimler AG late last year – is pushing through a large price increase and may need to return to customers this year with another one if input costs continue to climb, Board Chairman Martin Daum said on a conference call with analysts. CFO Jochen Goetz added that only a minimal number of customers have adjusted their orders in response to price hikes, which he said is a sign of the very strong underlying demand for trucks.

For more details on the company's outlook, visit our sister brand FleetOwner.

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has been in business journalism since the mid-1990s and writes about public companies, markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications, focusing on IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal, T&D World and Healthcare Innovation. He also curates the twice-monthly Market Moves Strategy newsletter that showcases Endeavor stories on strategy, leadership and investment and contributes to other Market Moves newsletters.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati in 1997, initially covering retail and the courts before shifting to banking, insurance and investing. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal before being named editor of the Nashville Post in early 2008. He led a team that helped grow the Post's online traffic more than fivefold before joining Endeavor in September 2021.